I don't know what crackers are made of

Flour, I guess?

Flour and salt?

"Seasonings."

I don't know what makes things good or bad

Flowers and salt

Flowers don't taste good

These flowers aren't making me thirsty

Sometimes bad happens

Sometimes a bunch

And sometimes there's good

And sometimes there's crackers

Or biscuits or foods that I don't know how to properly pronounce

Sometimes food can be food

Good can be good

Things can be things

Sometimes you begin to write a poem about crackers and it ends up mostly not being about crackers

Sometimes crackers are a metaphor

Sometimes you should look up what makes a strong metaphor versus a weak metaphor

Sometimes you shrug and say "accept my joy as it is, muddled and quiet and half-not-functional and I'm sure I can tie it back to my thesis statement given more time"

Crackers? For breakfast?

No that's not tying it back

But I also had something about not being a cracker artisan, and so it wasn't crucial that I know what makes up a cracker

Which tied it up more, but felt dumb

Anyway what's up with weird tiny hard bread amirite

I was getting what we needed, y'know,

for the next few days

when I full-on realized

it's not just for the next few days

it's every day, now

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

there isn't a break, any end point

and, huh, that scares the hell out of me

I'm not on a team, I don't have backup

and, who whoa

this isn't a punishment

this is life, dude

fffffoooo

this fucking week, huh?

but next week

and the week after that

et ceterraaaaaaa

they'll be a thing, too

things'll keep thinging

and I'll keep meing

even on the other days

every day, now

Life is a poorly written story

If you look it at through the lens of story structure

Is your whole life rising action up until the climax where you do something neat right before you die?

Do you climax early (heyoooooo) and then spend the rest of your life coasting towards your denoument?

Does your life have a single inciting incident? Something that kicks off the entire adventure? Just one thing that you can point to and say “that’s it, that’s where my story really began”?

That sounds dreadfully boring, to have one long-ass story that takes an entire lifetime to tell

And to only have a single story in you, even if it’s a really good one

So maybe it’s a bunch of short stories?

Here’s where this part started (and it’s muddled, because there aren’t really abrupt ends, and everything just sort of slides into each other), here’s what happened in this story, here’s how this story ends, here’s the resolution and what’s changed

Or maybe your life isn’t any stories, maybe your life’s just a life! And it’s yours! It’s yours, you fool! It’s the only thing that really will ever belong to you! So stop trying to shape your life to form a narrative, or you’ll just end up with a bunch of poorly written stories, even if your life is really good.

Oh look, I did a period, there, as if to make a point, even though, between you and me, it was really just an accidental period.

That one right there was on purpose, though