a joke

the fear of what we do not know

extends not just to the large

but also the small, like –

i am scared of poetry,

mythology,

and commas.

because rogue cells took a good woman

down when I was fourteen,

when my brain was malleable.

now i am destined to write

but only in mediocre verse

and stilted prose

because line breaks are scary,

arbitrary,

subjective, like the art critiques of my twenties.

and also because weed, coupled

with the pain,

clouds my cognitive function.