How to Be Alone
It all begins with knowing nothing lasts forever,
so you might as well start packing now.
In the meantime, practice being alive.
There will be a party where you’ll feel like nobody’s paying you attention
And there will be a party where attention’s all you’ll get.
What you need to do is to remember
to talk to yourself between these parties. and again there will be a day
— a decade — where you won’t fit in with your body
even though you’re in the only body you’re in.
You need to control your habit of forgetting to breathe.
Remember when you were younger and you practiced kissing on your arm?
You were on to something then. Sometimes harm knows its own healing.
Comfort knows its own intelligence. Kindness too. It needs no reason.
There is a you telling you another story of you.
Listen to her.
Where do you feel anxiety in your body? The chest? The fist? The dream before waking?
The head that feels like it’s at the top of the swing or the clutch of gut like falling and falling
& falling & falling and falling It knows something: you’re dying. Try to stay alive.
For now, touch yourself. I’m serious. Touch your self.
Take your hand and place your hand some place upon your body.
And listen to the community of madness that you are. You are such an
interesting conversation. You belong here.