Recovery Math
 by Kaveh Akbar

 

     ​yes of course I am grateful even if
     I don’t run around telling everyone like

     some hyperactive monkey
     I am busy teaching my bones to hold

     a new person such things take time here are the steps
     I have taken (one) placed my tongue on a scale (two) distrusted

     the reading (three) filled a mason jar with
     bourbon (four) waited for it to apologize (five)

     gave up waiting (six) covered my hands and
     knees in paint so I could (seven) crawl around

     my floor painting the word humility over
     and over (eight) scrubbed the floor which

     wasn’t actually mine sorry sorry (nine)
     allowed my lungs to inflate fully

     for the first time in a decade (ten) took
     time to notice how effortlessly my own

     body pleased me (eleven) realized
     I could repeat these steps until the sun’s

     death or mine (twelve) came to believe
     those would be separate events