You Can't Put Life on Hold

A Monday poem to get you up and on with it.

Hi loves, I’ve been having a hell of a time accepting that life just keeps on going, despite our elbows hurting and our knees, despite not knowing where we’re headed, despite our best efforts to stop for a minute to gather our thoughts. How is it September? Today I have a lot to do but like most days the past few months I woke up feeling pressed down by time. And though Gen Z may embrace “bed-rotting” — a term that has to be my least favorite TikTok coinage — I cannot. Life keeps going and it needs me to get up and get on with it. So today I wrote myself this motivational poem to get out of bed. LOL, as one does. It worked. Now I’m writing this at a coffee shop I rode my bike to, a very small but significant win when the world presses in.

For anyone who can relate and ever needs a reminder that when you stop everything keeps going so it’s better to keep pace, here’s a short poem for you.

****

You Should Get Up, or, You Can't Put Life on Hold


Like a cartoon character on a conveyor belt 
hooked by the collar
their legs two-stepping too fast
making that funny cartoon sound
trying not to fall in place


but i'm flesh on earth
the hook's around my clavicle
i lie down and it hooks my breath


it's worse
significantly worse
when your heart feels like it's thudding in reverse
the chamber curling up on itself 
flapping like a balloon spluttering spit
spreading last gasps
all through the air
the memory of you
the evidence
dispersed
too diffuse to dna trace


you can lie down
but the moving walkway moves
still
you're hurtling
lock eyes with one spot in the void
you can feel still
but your heart flap keeps flapping
time is leaking out
backwards
it's worse this way
trying to stay


you should get up
take the hook
pull
let the blood out

*****

Here’s to gathering our thoughts and tackling our to-do lists.