This selection, chosen by Managing Editor Krista Cox, is from Accidental Garden by Catherine Esposito Prescott (Gunpowder Press 2023).
Instructions: How to Heal
Dismiss the pretense that you
brought this on yourself, that you
summoned this from the depths
of suffering. Disavow the notion
that you caused your disease. Disown
interpretation and explanations. Disentangle
fact from facile thinking, please. In fact,
feel free to disturb your world
with a philosophy of randomness.
The universe began because it was God’s way,
the Big Bang, or a collusion of certain
wandering particles? You decide.
Disclaim stories that tell you that you lost
yourself. You were thriving, you were expressive,
you ate healthy foods, you were healthy, you are
healthy, you meditated, you were kind
to plants and animals and people,
you loved and you are love. Dispossess
old thoughts. Disagree openly. Disembark
into a new life. Disappear like a comet
if you must, but set no intentions. See clearly.
Disown disease; it is not you. Your thoughts
are not you. The scar on your lip/arm/leg/lung/throat
is not you. Disidentify. You are whole.
Catherine Esposito Prescott is the author of Accidental Garden, winner of The Barry Spacks Poetry Prize (Gunpowder Press, 2023), and two chapbooks. She is the co-founder of SWWIM and editor-in-chief of SWWIM Every Day. Some of her recent poems appear or are forthcoming in Colorado Review, Josephine Quarterly, NELLE, and Poets Reading the News. In addition to her work in poetry, Prescott teaches yoga philosophy and leads yoga and writing retreats.
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