resuscitation on a tuesday

Everything is on fire,

but everyone I love is doing beautiful things.

—Nikita Gill

a friend is floating 

on a kayak in Antarctica

presses her hand firmly

to its ice as penguins ripple

under her oar.

another friend will lay down

next to his dog and count

his breaths before

kissing his eyelids close.

a man returns to fragments

of his lost LA home

finds the engagement ring

beneath the ash

and kneels.

I don’t believe in much most days

but there’s a chickadee

outside my bedroom window

his song vibrating the clouds

like the first gasp of fresh air

sputtering us back to life.