The universe is organized
in a way that is unpredictable,
an alluring contradiction
with the eyes of a madwoman
trapped inside a laid-back cat.
She tries to ****** you, she doesn't move you.
You watch her only when she is still,
calculating and dormant.
You study her, calculating her patterns.
But she is nine separate entities;
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
etc., etc., etc.,
and perhaps too many other species to name
yet you may think she is "tame"

It's true that she does less damage
than she is capable of--
test her limits, but remember

the universe has no edge.

You know you're sick
when your body is in constant need of warmth,
head aching like a broken heart,
and you know it's not within your control yet
somehow you are to blame.
Trust me, I've been there.
I know that feeling, that disease.
There isn't anything more tragic than
a bad habit which
you don't seem to feel the need of
breaking.
And so, in a way, you're always
breaking the good ones
until you get the chance, the time,
the motivation to build them back up again.

I'm here to tell you
it's no use,
your determination to
cause destruction.
To **** isn't to create,
to ****** isn't to make something
beautiful out of this
personal violence.
Be kind to yourself.

Don't wait for me
to come to the surface.
There is a lifetime of possibility
here on the ocean floor.
Let me be
the bottom-dweller
first discovered by submarine.
The darkness is not
as intimidating
as it may seem.

Don't feel around for my body
with your feet.
You won't find me in the shallow end
of the sea;
walk down the gradual *****,
where there is no air left to breath.
Over the mountains and hills
and great plains,  then you'll find me
Seven miles deep
in the Marianas Trench.

Then you'll understand my immense stress.

By the time I get home from rehearsal,
The world has stopped.
I'm watching the movie
You've Got Mail,
and earlier the director said
our cast had finally achieved art.
Tom Hanks is a businessman
with the heart of a philosopher.
Kathleen saw a butterfly
on the subway
She thinks it went to
Bloomingdale's to buy a hat--
I envision monarchs
preferring kimonos.