ZEN MUSINGS IN TAMPA, 2018
If you eliminate
you can continue living.
In a contest between
keeping and letting go,
err on the side
of release. All is practice
for the big one. You won’t get
to hold anything. Trust is hubris,
a vain expectation someone else
cares more for your needs
than he does for his own.
You’re better off
pouring your own water.
The gods will punish you
swiftly if you throw a tantrum.
Look at you: legs spread wide,
glass upended on the floor.
Teachers called you clumsy,
said all you needed
was more practice. Somebody will
always snatch the glass away,
laughing at the spill.
You must be clever, willing
to let the container overturn.
Release its contents,
then walk away quickly.
Don’t try to go back.
Leah Mueller is an indie writer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of two chapbooks, “Queen of Dorksville” (Crisis Chronicles Press) and “Political Apnea” (Locofo Chaps) and three books, “Allergic to Everything”, (Writing Knights Press) “Beach Dweller Manifesto” (Writing Knights) and “The Underside of the Snake” (Red Ferret Press). Her work appears in Blunderbuss, Summerset Review, Outlook Springs, Crack the Spine, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and other publications. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest.
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