Poetry: full disclosure

By Anne Gvozdjak

two syllables too large for me to swallow

and settle for: you ask me how i’m doing 

so i cough up their convenience 

from between pillars in my throat—two syllables! 

i think as i feed their thrifted simplicity

into complacent hands—just two syllables! 

to mean: take the average of one state of wreckage

and another state of yearning and call it 

OKAY—okay, as in THIS WAS NOT THE WAY

I THOUGHT I WOULD BE BUT I AM LEARNING 

TO NOT BE AFRAID THAT THIS IS THE WAY

I WILL BE—okay, as in next time,

if you have the strength to stop and listen

to an honest answer then i will shudder relief 

and find the strength to say: OKAY, SO—