I wanted to say
life’s too short
to spend it
with miserable people
but gut-checked
my own aura,
plum and shades
of dull gray.

I’m not all doom
and gloom, I hope,

there are times
I eat the crisp green bean
straight off the bush,

laugh as the orange
spark races toward
the Black Cat

and write in yellow
across new snow,
my name,
as optimistically
as one can
under such conditions.