I Always Start - April 10, 2022

with the last page

of the newspaper

and work backwards

I like to begin

with non-splashy articles

tiny creature stories

not what the waves

wash up and scatter

for all to pick up and see

but just beyond

the tidal line

where the quiet

struggles of kindness

failure and love live

in the rise and fall

of luck and fate

those small-boned lives

that sway back and forth

with the tides and

hover in perpetual dusk

until a tragedy pushes

one into the current

throwing it onto

page one or two

or more likely

sweeping it into the deep