January 15th, 2022/life advice tastes good with rice

Today’s Prompt: What is a life lesson you feel everyone can benefit from learning?

“Absolutes”

Dear stranger to my brain,

Some things must be experienced to be understood,

but not everything must be seen to be believed.

Sometimes, I believe I see what I’ve never experienced–

My trials draw near parallels to another’s pain and I place my imaginary feet in their steps.

Two, some loves must burn before being reborn,

though not all hearts experiences every degree of the flames.

Phoenixes, all of us, ashes from matchsticks or lava or suns.

I’ve got good advice (you’ll grow and get better)

and bad news (sometimes life is just like that)

But here’s the truth about life lessons:

I am not your teacher,

you are.

Life sits you down in the desk of difficulty,

and you take notes by yourself.

Not to make light of the ways we can help out each other,

I mean that it’s hard to explain with mere words

what the flames of burnt matchsticks have seared in my soul.

–

So here is my wisest insight:

life advice tastes good with rice

but sometimes I come to you with my belly full

and my eyes brimming,

where the only warmth I need is a tear-filled tissue and a hug.

–

Here is my most ironic insight:

I visited a conservation sanctuary

that post-told the dooms of extinct species

while urging the care of our arthritic mother nature.

As I strolled the stone path through the sanctuary,

I avoided a lizard

squashed by somebody’s oblivious shoe

blood pooling from the gut.