wishing out loud

wishing out loud

i remember tripping over myself
to miss the crack in the sidewalk 
just to save my mother’s back, and
i remember taking care not to walk
under ladders, or across the path of
black cats, i tossed specks of spilled salt over my shoulders (can’t  remember if it was the right or
the left), knock on wood…did all 
this and more because someone knew
someone who knew something
long ago, and said so, back then,
when wishing upon a star made
wishes a sure bet for coming true, oh the countless pennies i tossed into
fountains, wishing wells… i learned patience, waiting…and waiting, 
hoping…waiting…waiting, i learned 
not to wish for things, and that bad things happen no matter how hard 
we tried to protect ourselves from it
wars, disease, malevolent strangers,
and other dangers, freckled faces 
on milk cartons, innocence is 
a fragile thing…how does anyone survive the loss of it or dare hope
for better or more, and yet
the sun rises and sets, we wake from
our slumber to birdsong and coffee 
brewing, the crackling, salty, sweet aura of breakfast, and if we’re lucky
someone to share it with, or not, the
birds are good company, and the breeze…oh the breeze has many 
secrets to tell, stories it heard from 
the trees just over the hill, it’s okay,
i think to myself, that life doesn’t 
always work out like i planned, okay 
to settle for that second choice,
(sometimes, it turns out to be 
the best choice)
this is what growing up feels like
and if you make it this far, there’s 
a good 
chance some of those long forgotten 
wishes of yours have come true after all

~kat

Na/GloPoWriMo2022 Day 13 Prompt: Today, in honor of the potential luckiness of the number 13, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that, like the example poem here, joyfully states that “Everything is Going to Be Amazing.”