I COULD wait passively for the pharmacy to send me text: “your prescription for X is ready for pickup.” But it’s already been a week, and I am no longer optimistic that the system is working. I decided to BRAVE the madness and give a little shove to the automated system. “Should I tell the pharmacy you are on your way?” asks the automated voice. “Say yes or press one.” I press one, and then make it real: I drive to the pharmacy. I show up; I have kept my promise. Upon arrival, I see a veritable mountain of filled prescriptions, as if an army of doctors have decided the best way to lay siege to illness is to REFER to this one pharmacy. (Which I suppose is sort of true). Mine is not among them. Rather, as I suspected, my prescription is “in process.” I settle into the seat provided for those who wait. I listen to the piped in music that invites me to view this whole process as a MERRY
adventure where my true love will await me forever. I sigh and watch the crumbling of our world, where dysfunction prevails and “you will still be mine” pulses to a beat over it all.

Georg’ann

As the plans take shape,
resistance begins to ARISE
like a noxious vapor.
I feel myself sinking, heavy
no energy to EXERT.
Arise, sink
Expand, collapse
Like dough
Like breath

And there it is, the recognition
as sweet and satisfying as that
single BERRY beneath the leaf.
Polarity is how we’re designed.

We’ll go, I can make MERRY,
even as everything in me wants to retreat into solitude.
It is possible, in fact essential, to do both simultaneously.
This is the way I inhabit self
This is the way
This is the way
This is the way
Breathing full bellow breaths
This is the way

Heather