I don’t know how to begin poetry
So I just begin from the middle
Dipping one toe in the last lullaby lurking lopsided
And another paddling the catchy beginnings

It is also how I hold a conversation
Asking first about what they dreamt of yesterday
Then, what’s the fear at your core?
Crawling a little too late to a “Um, how do you do?”

Isn’t this also how you live a life?
Realizing there is a “life” to live when a quarter is over
Swimming to explore what the end of death holds?
Coming back, sweaty, to untangle the childhoods.

Maybe beginning in the middle is where is all
Maybe having no concept of structure, time, story
Would make it easy to begin. But I don’t know, you
Tell me – how’d you read this poem?