Beauty is the harvest of presence — David Whyte

What shall I harvest today?

Your back hurts

and we think we know why

once we pay attention.

You are anxious

and we are wondering

if doing drugs has anything to do with it.

You are food obsessed.

Is it our culture? Your parents? Are we as a species

doomed for superficiality in perpetuity — slaves to an agreed upon idea of gender actualizations?

We shop a lot.

Our appetites are easily triggered.

Oof…

It’s time to bake bread.

Rest like it did overnight in the fridge

and stop overthinking.

Imagine if we shared our blood.

Every day.

Cut ourselves open and exchanged

the deepest thoughts within our minds,

red ribbons

everywhere,

as a matter of fact

and survival,

a fluid exchange toward truth

an obsession with understanding the other

your pulse — my bone aching heart breaking dependency –

to get you.

I think stop putting that block underneath your sacrum.

Perhaps take a pause from mind altering substances for a bit.

Hide the credit cards.

Wait until you’re hungry then choose what your body needs then stop eating or drinking when you’re full, yes

wait a sec before lifting your glass.

The blessings really are under our skin.

This functioning body in whatever capacity present today

is what we have

here &

now.

And so, the next breath is what?

Filled with your passion to create?

Laden in your gifts and fancy tricks?

A drip of kindness to uplift?

Or lick of smile in reciprocate, and duplicate, to

exponentiate?

Your hand in mine, unsure and hesitant,

tense with question, hunting affirmation –

unconfident,

I see.

Let’s share blood love

be alive and sensory

Clean.

Kiss.

Listen.

Breathe.

Find the rainbow and paint a world.