Keep Going, I Guess by CL Bledsoe
If I stop, I’ll fall asleep: this is the secret
to adulthood nobody tells us. So much
of life is about hiding ourselves. If my nose
runs, people might figure out I’m human.
They’d never forgive me for that. Too
many humans have failed them. Name
something that isn’t a metaphor for life.
Go ahead. I’ll wait. But I might doze off.
The way we crush ants on the sink in
the bathroom. The complaining of cars
in the street. My best friend has rats,
and I can’t handle mice. Living isn’t
a competition, but it clearly is. I want to
say something about the way moonlight
makes things appear lovely, but it’s really
the god of stubbed toes’ only friend showing
off. When the sadness goes, you’re left
with the fear that it’ll come back. When that
eventually fades, boredom fills the void.
And anger over how much of your life
was taken by this disease most people make
fun of. The thing about snowflakes is no
one’s actually measuring them, not really.
They just say that so your grandfather
feels better about himself. But why do we
care what grandfathers think about themselves?
Raised on a rice and catfish farm in eastern Arkansas, CL Bledsoe is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the poetry collections Riceland, Trashcans in Love, Grief Bacon, and his newest, The Bottle Episode, as well as his latest novels Goodbye, Mr. Lonely and The Saviors. Bledsoe co-writes the humor blog How to Even, with Michael Gushue located here: https://medium.com/@howtoeven His own blog, Not Another TV Dad, is located here: https://medium.com/@clbledsoe He’s been published in hundreds of journals, newspapers, and websites that you’ve probably never heard of. Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.