Check out more of Mira's writing and poetry here.

Wednesdays are for hope and the sky is for crying

Underwater

things look the same

if you close your eyes and use your hands

imagine if your only contact with water

was the birdbath outside

she put it there for you don't break her heart

and say it's not the one you wanted

Home Depot isn’t open at 2 am

but dad’s wood shop is

he asked us not to use his tools

but maybe since it is after hours

there will be things that he will never know.

Can’t count past ten

past ten

enough times to get to one hundred

dream sheep don’t need to eat

but you buy them alfalfa over and over and

over again no matter how many times I tell you

not to go to the feed store

on Tuesdays at 3 when school gets out

just down the street

don’t call in sick it doesn’t matter anymore

no one takes the roll on the corner of lost and

found.

Cross off the things you do

as you do

as you do them so they know they are done

it is for someone else, not for you,

for the archives, they will create from the papers

in your life

from the letters and the tickets and the notes

that were passed under desks and through sweaty hands

ink smeared across a blend of

print and cursive

you have ink from that leaky fountain pen on your hand

your mom will make you wash it off even though you think it looks

artsy.

Hello!

Answer the phone only when you want to

the other end of the line

is always somebody but not always

some body

who are we to animals and dirt when

nature calls

we are the people who invented language

give me their number

I have a complaint;

I can never find the words that I am looking for

and I need to know where they go to hide

when I’m not looking.

Give me your high fives

your sarcastic comments that no one understands

and the pennies in the front pocket of your jeans

I will throw them into a fire

I created from the heat of the moment

I will cast a spell on people who have wronged you

please tell me where to sit

when nothing seems right and

the world is crying

I cannot mend things if I cannot see

the broken parts.

Anger is permissible in bowling alleys

and sometimes in public swimming pools

although be careful of who you are with

because I hear that the rules are different

depending on what your childhood was like

and whether you put ketchup on your fries

there is a right choice but the only way to know

is to try.

Run away

from most things because usually that can work

it is okay

if not everyone you love

is the love of your life

and it is okay

if everyone you love

teaches you something about yourself

write it down

and put it in that drawer

of stuff that doesn’t belong anywhere else.