A Little Bit of Timely Advice 

By Mekeel McBride

Time you put on blue

shoes, high-heeled, sequined,

took yourself out dancing.

You been spending too much

time crying salty

dead-fish lakes into soupspoons,

holding look-alike contests

with doom. Baby, you

need to be moving. Ruin

ruins itself, no use unplanting

what’s left of your garden.

Crank up the old radio

into lion-looking-for-food

music; or harmonica, all indigo,

breathing up sunrise. Down

and out’s just another opinion

on up and over. You say

you got no makings

for a song? Sing anyway.

Best music’s the stuff comes

rising out of nothing.