When in doubt

...eat popsicles. 

When in doubt, 

eat anything with sugar, 

especially popsicles. 

Accept the temporary high. 

When in doubt, 

take a long fast moped ride,

winding through the streets you love,

Fairmount, South Park, North Park, Eaton,

until you can feel your world spinning

underneath you again. 

When in doubt, 

pick up your neighbor's daughter

and make her laugh, 

until you care more about keeping

the sticks from the yard out of her mouth

than you do about burrowing sticks

into your own thin skin. 

When in doubt,

listen to your answering machine, 

the saved messages. 

One from Helen with a joke

about two zebras and a pickle,

one from Mark about the birth 

of baby John, 

one from Grace

where you can hear your mom 

in the background. 

When in doubt, 

wash some clothes 

and put them on straight from the dryer, 

warm, fresh, 

like the skin you wish you were in.

When in doubt, 

write a letter, or an email, 

correct the mistake 

that has you swimming. 

Put soft words in your brown heart, 

and let them massage a newness into you. 

When in doubt, 

and through the doubt,

and when the doubt is waning,

eat a popsicle. 

Then another if need be. 

Let your lips be red and happy,

and the rest of you will follow suit.