"TELL ME, WHAT IS IT YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE?"
-Mary Oliver
I plan on washing my sheets, cooking pasta, and cleaning
broken glass off the kitchen floor quickly lest it cut up any
little feet. I plan on eating peaches in the summer and
oysters only in months that end in -er because that's what
my mother taught me. I plan on making lovers out of poetry
and poetry out of lovers. I plan to eat tomato salad with
salt, oil, and hot French bread while my cousin regales me
with her stories. I will swallow the bitterness of missing
entire years together. I plan to say bless you when someone
sneezes. Excuse me when I pass them by. I plan to forgive
—even the people who don't deserve it. I plan on giving
loneliness a warm place in my bed when I need her. I plan
on hosting dinner parties and listening to my friend's
laughter in the half-light of evening. I plan on sending the
letter. I plan on falling in love often. Often, with the wrong
people, which will make the right one's love go down like
milk and honey. I plan on making mistakes, making love,
getting sunburnt, and still basking in the sunlight.
What is it I plan to do with my one wild and precious life?
Mary, I intend to live it.
-Margaux PaulMore from
↓@margauxpoetry on Instagram
- on Substack
Her book, Unsent Letters, is out now.
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