Keep eyes, ears and nose
on alert. Practice patience
till you can wait like a cat
perched on a stone wall
intent on a mouse.  

Dispute trade-marked half
truths, like that Everything
Bagels are topped with
everything.  

Smell the air after a storm
to see what fury’s end can
release.  

Attend to the sound made
by bills dropped into
a mailbox. Record it
as a curiosity for
posterity.  

Sift a clod of dirt
with your fingers.
Contemplate the soil’s
powdery gift to you  

but don’t bother learning
the names of weeds. They
won’t be any easier
to uproot.  

Watch a hummingbird’s
wings beat and with that
same energy ready-set-go
a good deed  

like looking your bus driver
in the eye and accepting
her smile as if it were
a trophy  

Ignore the come-hither  
of a store’s water bottle
aisle, its implicit greed  
an icy version of hell.  

Plant pansies outside
your window so you’ll
see flower smiles when
life’s sun hides.