Wednesday, July 3, 2002

It hasn't gotten any easier goddammit. Instructions to the Departing Husband Take everything you will need for your new life-- the many silences that hung like suits in your orderly closets, the reasons you tended carefully as a garden. Continue to water them. They will feed you all winter. Take the past which is obsolete, a history written by liars, a canvas you can paint over. Abandon the guilt you wore like shoes that pinched but were too good to throw out. Refuse to accept the scraps of affection that still come your way like misdirected letters or unordered goods. Unpack quickly. If the rooms seem empty, fill the cabinets with Swiss chocolate, fine wine, more money. Bolt your door against the static from yesterday. Keep moving. Learn nothing. -- by Lynne Burris Butler reprinted without permission from Split Verse 4:41:16 AM