The Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position Number 3
by Mary Mackey

It's easy to love
through a cold spring
when the poles
of the willows
turn green
pollen falls like
a yellow curtain
and the scent of
Paper Whites
clots
the air

but to love for a lifetime
takes talent

you have to mix yourself
with the strange
beauty of someone
else
wake each morning
for 72,000
mornings in
a row so
breathed and
bound and
tangled
that you can hardly
sort out
your arms
and
legs   


you have to
find forgiveness
in everything
even ink stains
and broken
cups

you have to be willing to move through
life
together
the way the long
grasses move
in a field
when you careen
blindly toward
the other
side

there's never going to be anything
straight or predictable
about your path
except the
flattening
and the springing
back

you just go on walking for years
hand in hand
waist deep in the weeds
bent slightly forward
like two question
marks
and all the while it

burns
my dear
it burns beautifully above
you
and goes on
burning
like a relentless
sun

Cute Things

I'm suddenly into "cute things."  I know this is a twisted part of my personality.  Sometimes it flares out without warning.  Like when I'm driving over to my cousins' apartment and "Are You Gonna To Kiss Me" comes on the country radio station that I'm flipping through and all of a sudden I'm screaming in the car and getting all gushy and happy and cutesy.  And then, damn it!  Glee has to be all cute and I'm wriggling with delight and it's just a mess.  CUTE THINGS!!!

Other times I find cute things to be cheesy and annoying.  Yet another contradiction.

Ok.  Lately I've been proud of my body not for what it looks like, but for what it can do.  I like to feel good about how I look, but I've found that when I'm active I care less about what I look like and more about how I feel.  My body can do a hell of a lot.  It can be kick-ass!  I can run four miles!  I can also chase kids around.  I can dance around and sing with my healthy lungs.  It is a gift.  And it feels good.  Thank you, o body of mine.

You know what else is cute?  THIS!!!  AAAAAA!!!!!!!!  CUTENESS!!!