Take a Chance

on poems

I dumped everything that was in my August brain/heart into this poem. It’s not one I’d necessarily include in a book; it’s sort of messy & octopus-like; it’s a bit like a spiderweb that picked up a little dust from everything that’s around it. But I think there are a few fun couplets in there that I’ll enjoy returning to in future summers, from the vantage point of future selves. I hope it goes beyond my own self-references and inner revelations to offer something to you. Let me know!

Some information to know before you read: I have been listening to a lot of Chance the Rapper this summer. Mostly Coloring Book on repeat, also occasionally The Big Day, though one Sunday I put on Acid Rap and then this poem pooled out.

Listen here, it’ll help you hear the rhythm & the exclamations:

---

Sneeze & You Might Miss It

I’m better than I was last time
But is it too late this time

We only get one ride one rodeo
one set of eyes to drive with

Mirrored sunglasses: pretty big flex 
in a pretty small town

Some people say I got that something
That something wrong with me

My calling is calling myself names
I beat everyone to the punch

I call myself out
I made my own last name

Sun in my eyes, new name on my lips
Honey in mind, down for a dip

River runs high, clover knee-high
I miss smelling like everyone around me

I miss yelling with people around me
I miss everyone who used to be around me

Friend or foe, how do I know
If you're not grandfathered in

Grandma will show you the door
Everybody’s somebody’s everything

Hey I wanna be everybody’s everything!
But who has that that many spoons

Love coming in, harvest season
Loves wearing thin, harvest season

Fields full of praise songs
There’s no way to heal wrong

Cut the stalks a foot from the ground
What’s yellow you just kiss goodbye

Thank it 
then you watch it fly

Summer isn’t my favorite song
But it’s a hit on the radio

Remember summer used to last forever 
Tan lines across your back & shoulders

Your bellybutton saw the sun and curtsied
You remembered you came from your mother

Shoot I don't wanna get old 
in front of everyone

Instead: watch me walking downtown
with ankle bells & new bangs on 

I’m proof you can talk shit for years
and still get the cut you want

I hope I love all my choices
I hope I make everything of love

I’m not woke I sleep deeply 
& dream of kissing everyone

They don't kiss me back
but they’re pulling their weight

for me in other ways
I know we all love both well & badly

So let’s change the sheets & sing
every sweet thing we can think of

This is the summer of nightmares and daydreams
Or are these the days of miracle and wonder

No these are the days of cannabis seltzers
and jars of pickles on the stairs

Listen! If we know who we are 
we don't have to tell anybody anything!

So let’s dig in a little deeper
hook our eyes a little longer to each other

Let’s chat hard and hoist each other high
until the world burns through

this version to the next one
We’ll dance-walk through shitstorms & floods

with given or brand-new names
I’m grateful to name this bliss or its opposite

If I had a dollar for every time
someone thought my name was Rachel

I repeat I am eternally grateful 
to not feel hateful

All my hustles ride shotgun
See me driving so raw-honey slow

even your granny passed me 
singing Cotton-Eyed Joe

But when your girl almost dies
on a local curve

You press the brakes & hold on
at exactly ten & two

I wish everyone were my neighbor
Everyone’s my cousin if I want them

I want to be as epic as an old Kanye album
I want to live at the exact speed of a bird in flight

I want to be so in touch with everyone
we are practically touching practically all the time

But you can’t always see the cracks in the sidewalk
You can’t know what will trip you up

Sure it takes a village
to raise a kid

But it only takes a single person
to turn your heart to lead

But I don't have to lecture you
I treasure you!

I swear to you 
I’m here for you 

I'm here for me
I’m clear to me, if not clear to you

There’s nothing like this time around
to turn this whole darn ship around

Sometimes you just have to bless yourself
instead of waiting for the sneeze

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Grateful to ye who read that whole long poem! Grateful to my friends and family who are still here with me, and my friends and family who are not! Grateful for my field crew who listened to me recite this poem in the field off my phone!

With love,
Taylor MK Honeymeadow

PS: Support your local freewheeling tired hungry farming poet who is still hoping against hope that someone will publish her manuscript and so she slings out $30 to a press every once in a while in the quietude of her own home corner.