Podaroo

I talk too much. I know this. I've been trying to do better.

This afternoon, I went for a socially distant girls' day out with a friend who's been having a rough time. All morning while I was getting ready, I kept telling myself, Listen more than you talk. Don't try to relate things to your own problems. Don't lecture. Don't interrupt. Don't get lost in the minutia.

I had a lovely day, but now I'm looking back at our conversations, and all I can see are the times I broke in while she was talking, or went on my own little soliloquy trying echo what I thought she might be saying. At the time, my impulse was to show that I saw her, that I've paid attention, that I understand. But now I'm

I let someone who doesn't have a current address have their mail sent to me. I'd like to stop, but he's saying that it's illegal to interfere with the delivery of his mail. That seems like bullshit to me, but I'm not a lawyer.

Also, once I do stop accepting his mail, can I just notify the post office and write 'no longer at this address' on any mail that does come here? Or would I need to do more than that?

In case it's relevant: this is not some on who lives here or has ever lived here. I hold their mail and they pick it up in person.

Edit: Thank you! And since the bot asked me to add a location, I'm in the US.

You must have the mind of a birthday cake.

That strike of sweetness, candles

light and lingering green

as wishes fly

like breath over water.

​

What happens, happens.

Atlas held the sky aloft, the hard horizon

marking lines on his hands.

Don’t look for meaning in these lines.

He forgot what he was holding.

​

But you, the cake:

Unsalted butter, eggs, sugar, flour,

milk and fire.

Tenseless.

Holding time in boundless light.

​

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/d64ein/creation/f0q3us9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

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What came before language?

the darkness before the breath upon the water.

I knew something, I’m sure

a truth before descriptive paragraphs,

a color before colors had names.

The mind is a captive animal.

Domesticated might say it better:

out of the elements

kept lazy by easy food

still killing maybe nine birds a year.

Here we have our garden rows

Names and numbers, lists and poems.

all the things we tell our dogs

and the songs we use to pull together

as the wind catches our sails.

We keep account in Linear B

we surface dwellers

Blind and blinding

Nemo in Slumberland

​

[One](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/d3eoq8/written_while_on_a_plane/f04wbrk/?conte

So, as the title implies, I spaced out when adding rose water to an angel food cake, and now I’ve got cake batter that tastes really, really rose-y. Is there anything I can do to tone down the flavor? Or should I just pretend I wanted a cake that smells tastes like grandma’s boudoir*?

• I have never tasted any grandmother’s boudoir, my own or anyone else’s. But seriously, my kitchen smells like the perfume aisle at Talbot’s.

So, a friend of mine passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. I found out at work on Monday, and while I was upset, it wasn't obvious I'd gotten bad news. I have my own office, so I was alone when I got the news, and I carried on with my day pretty much as normal.

As the week has gone on, I've noticed that this is definitely impacting my work -- I'm distracted, I've nearly missed deadlines, I'm not responding to emails or even following conversations in meetings.

So I'm wondering, should I tell my boss? I haven't lost a family member, and I most likely won't need to take time off work. But I feel like it might be helpful to explain what's going on with me -- or is that weird?

Here we are, a mote in a maelstrom,
a cup balanced on an egg.

Just us, fingertips of time
grabbing at a wolf’s ears.

"What was there before there was anything?"

Time was bent, always 
reaching closer to nothing. 

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