It’s all right if we never receive the love we want.
—Robert Bly, “The Hawk in His Nest”
It’s all right if you greet the morning with an awkward embrace.
It’s fine if you don’t go blackberrying
in the Ozarks in June,
or if the cookie’s fortune was meant for someone else.
It’s all right if you can’t remember the last time you saw a bluebird
or rainbow; those omens of happiness.
It’s fine if the zucchini you planted topples from its own weight.
It’s all right if you haven’t practiced the many household uses of vinegar.
Tomorrow will bring a different mess,
sure as a solar eclipse will happen on a new moon
and the snow crocus is a promise of spring.
It’s all right to schlep through February’s torpor in your pajamas,
to be and buy your valentine.
It’s all right to wear the jacket of ice called grief all day.
It’s all right if a friendship dies
or if the neighbor or doctor you loved moves away,
for love waxes and wanes like all things.
It’s all right if you’re late with spring cleaning
for what is procrastination but an overture
after budding, before blooming.
Sometimes the greatest gratitude isn’t for what happens,
but what doesn’t,
like the common cold that could’ve been COVID.
It’s all right if you disagree with our founding principle:
This world is the best possible world.
Although it’s difficult to believe considering the daily news;
but remember it isn’t whether the glass is full or not
when the air in your lungs never empties.
Besides, no one has it easy. Only despair is easy.
–
Maria Koors (she/her) has a BA in Moving Image Arts from College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She attended graduate school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for creative writing. She has received support from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She thinks you’re amazing.