It Ain’t What it Ain’t, My Friend by James Diaz

The first bit of sky

you get lost up in

is like this ticker tape

cut inside you somewhere

young and in pain

you wait for things

that are only revealed

after you go through it

oh, you’ve been through it

I can see that

I’ve got eyes for this sort of thing

but I just want you to know

that despite what you’ve learned so far

it does get better

you can mend broken fences

you can unburn those bridges

what you don’t put right

will put you right

here, where you are

just start small

and then remember that sky

Goddammit, remember why.

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James Diaz (They/Them) is the author of This Someone I Call Stranger (2016, Indolent Books) and All Things Beautiful Are Bent (2021, Alien Buddha Press) as well as the founding editor of the literary arts and music magazine Anti-Heroin Chic. They live somewhat deep in the woods in upstate New York. @diaz_james