- After you’ve read this poem, place it
on your kitchen table - From the top of the poem, fold down a flap of your fear;
from the bottom, a flap of hope. - Turn this poem over and smooth it tenderly
with the side of your hand. You will
no longer be able to read
this poem. Trust it. - Feed an elastic hairband over each end of this poem
the way you once gathered the strands
of your daughter’s ponytail. - Now fold in both ends of the poem
until they overlap like waves
on the bay. - Turn over the poem and plump
the pleats. - Secure the elastic hairbands of this poem
around the shells of your ears. - Wear this poem as if your life
depended on it.
*Note to User:
This poem is not guaranteed to save you or the world.
However, evidence suggests that a poem may help you
get through one more day.
Click here to read Wendy Drexler on the origin of the poem.
Image: “how to make a paper airplane” by woodleywonderworks, licensed under CC 2.0
Wendy Drexler is a recipient of a 2022 artist fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her fourth collection, Notes from the Column of Memory, was published in September 2022 by Terrapin Books. Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in Barrow Street, J Journal, Lily Poetry Review, Nimrod, Pangyrus, Prairie Schooner, Salamander, Solstice, The Atlanta Review, The Mid-American Review, The Sun, and The Threepenny Review, among others. She was the poet in residence at New Mission High School in Hyde Park, MA, from 2018 to 2023 and served as programming co-chair for the New England Poetry Club from 2016-2024.
Latest posts by Wendy Drexler (see all)
- Reconstructed Sapphic Fragment #145 and Erasure of Reconstructed Sapphic Fragment #145 - August 23, 2024
- The Passion Flower - April 11, 2023
- Types of Animals - November 19, 2020