“Tell me…” a poem by Margaux Paul

"TELL ME, WHAT IS IT YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE?"-Mary Oliver I plan on washing my sheets, cooking pasta, and cleaning broken glass off the kitchen floor quickly lest it cut up any little feet. I plan on eating peaches in the summer and oysters only in months that end in -er because that's what my mother taught me. I plan on making lovers out of poetry and poetry out of lovers. I plan to eat tomato salad with salt, oil, and hot French bread while my cousin regales me with her stories. I will swallow the bitterness of missing entire years together. I plan to say bless you when someone sneezes. Excuse me when I pass them by. I plan to forgive —even the people who don't deserve it. I plan on giving loneliness a warm place in my bed when I need her. I plan on hosting dinner parties and listening to my friend's laughter in the half-light of evening. I plan on sending the letter. I plan on falling in love often. Often, with the wrong people, which will make the right one's love go down like milk and honey. I plan on making mistakes, making love, getting sunburnt, and still basking in the sunlight.What is it I plan to do with my one wild and precious life?Mary, I intend to live it.-Margaux PaulMore from Margaux Paul ↓@margauxpoetry on InstagramMargaux Paul on SubstackHer book, Unsent Letters, is out now. You can listen to me read another poem by Margaux over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure