day THREE HUNDRED and SIXTEEN

People Who Mean Well

People who mean well,

they'll try and tell you things

like, do whatever it is

you are meant to do.

I imagine whatever these people

are meant to do lets them

sleep at night,

or at least pays the rent.

I guess they don't think much about

what happens if what you're meant to do

leaves you lost and broken in some

hotel on Geary Street,

half insane

in some tiny room,

too far gone to cry.

These same people will tell you things

like, life never gives you more

than you can handle,

while every day I step outside

into a world of people who were given

more than they can handle;

you can hear it in their voices,

you can see it in their eyes

and the way their hands shake.

Another thing people will tell you

is that death is necessary

in order to give meaning to life,

but I've yet to see a death

that's given meaning

to anything at all,

not even death.

And if they really believed it

they wouldn't have invented god.

They can have their death.

Me, I could wake into this mess of beauty

and terror again and again, for eternity,

even though it's far more than I can handle

and I have no idea what I was meant to do.

--William Taylor Jr.