[ NaPo 2021 ] [ D&N ] Involuntary Reflexes

 
It's not always easy to remember  
that there are more stories  
within waiting to be told  
than can be written in a day  
 
I know  
 
Been there, done it  
spent an entire April writing poetry  
running circles around the old self  
who often sat stumped  
in a rainforest of inspiration  
 
Regardless, limitation remains  
 
Time  
---there's only so much  
afforded in between eating, chores  
relaxing, travels, grocery shopping  
and of course, sleeping . . .  
 
that whole third of our lives  
we insist we're comatose  
and unproductive slugs  
 
in which the poetry comes  
more effortlessly in the form  
of our nocturnal dreams  
than seemingly anything else  
with the exceptions of breathing  
and fear of bugs  
 
So, when that voice inside proclaims  
I'm out of ideas to write about!  
stop holding your breath  
until your face turns blue  
 
Close your eyes  
 
Clear your head  
 
It will come wiggling and crawling  
out of fertile soil to you instead  
of you forcing a poem into existence  
struggling to pull it from the ground  
by hand, roots and all