on Rochester,

she said:
It doesn't deserve your humility.
Having considered place,
I now think of people and things

small betrayals, a little dissapointment
(things to get, things to get
used to)
the roar of gilded lions
and horn-rimmed spectacles
through which we speak sideways;
plastic & acetate. I have
spent most of my life
respecting every person I have met,
of this, I am still recovering.

Is there a word for when
crabs change the shape of their
shell from hard to soft
to molden hard to leathery soft.
I call it the softening.
Do crabs even do this?

The softening is much like realizing mortality
and the weight of a heart filled,
with empty. I listen to 69 Love Songs
and read Arundhati Roy to commit
to this chrysalis this shape
this size
and content.

There is, content,
and how-ever, there is:
discontent.