Green Eggs And Ham.

Every time I sit down with
the intention of writing poetry,
the words go skipping about
and become naughty children 
who like to hide from me.
So I just write down the lazier,
more elderly words that stump on past;
they're easier to catch
because of their walkers and wheelchairs.

Even the down jacket on my cappuccino is laughing at me.

All right, fine. 
It's not even a cappuccino.
It's a mocha.
I just thought cappuccinos sounded smarter than mochas.

But the metallic-neon-orange copy
of Green Eggs and Ham
isn't laughing.
(Even if the words "party edition"
are printed on her cover.)

She knows how difficult those 
fresh-faced words can be
when they're hiding from the pen.

Green Eggs and Ham knows that the birthing process
can be hell on earth for that
person-behind-the-pen,
especially if all he wants to do is trade poetry for bread.
If those words were my livelihood,
I very well may have starved long ago, 
even if only due to my need to hide with those damn words.

How cruel, those words!

Once I finally do pin them down,
I hide them again.
They rarely see the daylight of outside eyes.

And now Green Eggs and Ham is laughing at me.

"Why bother chasing them," she says, 
"if you're only just collecting them like a mad old woman and her cats?"

"I'm shy," I say.

"If you keep too many of them in one home," she says,
"they'll fester.
Wither.
Die.
You'll abuse them."

"But they're not cats," I say.
"They're words."

"Nevertheless," she says,
"You wouldn't do that to cats.
So why do it to your words?"

"I don't even like cats!" I say.
"And neither do you!"

"You're right," she says.
"I only like mice, foxes, and goats.
But you know I'm right."

Green Eggs and Ham is still teaching me lessons after all these years
and I'm starting to resent her for it.
I wrap my scarf ever the more tightly around my neck
and submit to the truth I find in her pages.

I'll find a way to love these words enough to set them free.
I can't hold on to children forever, you know.
No one can.
Someday they'll grow up and I'll have to watch them leave.
To find their purpose in this world.
I can't wait to see what they decide to do.


-Miranda