I Am Alive

The thing of everything ever written

I was walking
North on Larchmont
East side.
There’s this one pole
I always touchstone.
It’s covered in band stickers.
I love street promo
Stickers, stencils, posters.
Takes me back to NYC.
Helps me believe
In everything I believe in.
That’s for another day though.

And on top of the usual collage
Of band come hear me’s
There’s a Post-it.
Classic barely-yellow.
On which someone had carefully written
I am alive

No period
Point taken.
It seemed so fragile.

I am alive

Not even fully stuck on.
Maybe it had been
But had un stuck itself
Except at the center.
The center did hold in this case.
But it was all that had.

So it hovered there.
Just below eye level.
Unless you were a child.

I wondered who this Post-it was for.
Someone.
Everyone.
Just one
Known to walk this way.
And who might be wondering
Did they make it through the night?

Or maybe it was for no one else.
Maybe posted up for themselves only.
A mirror
WIthout flesh or flash.

I am alive

Just written for a self
Who loop snails their a’s
And hilltop arches their m’s.
Who puts the bars under and over the I.
So boundaried
Those I beam I’s
I always think.
But maybe they’re
Gathering the strength.

I am alive

And that’s really something.
It’s all the things
And the thing
Of everything
Ever written.

I am alive

Point taken
As hipsters and grannies and unhomed
Meander the boulevard
Shopping and noshing and caffeinating
And wondering
Under all of it
About the biggest question.
Is it the end
Or just huge shift.
Transition.
Evolution.
Who knows.

But for now
I am alive
And it just doesn’t
Go without saying.

And of course if you’re a new band
That doesn’t have the budget
Even for stickers
Well done.
I’ll be in the front row.