How to Continue Loving the World Despite Years of Impediment

^{If death is the absence of life, / then death’s death is life.
—Sun Ra}

      Gather your losses, oblong
& indiscriminate: avocado rot,
      football, cracked soap dish;
dropped eggshells, embryo
      gone. Gather mutilated joy.
Smelted promises. Aloft,
      here & now. In open air.
Gather your heartbreak, wind-
      ing & windowless. Animal
the shadow, lurking
      at the edges
of your mouth.
      Needle into a nest
your intricate sorrows.
      Roost there. Gather
yourself. In a clearing—
      Or gather your losses
like twin sheets, stripped
      from a sick child’s bed.
I know I know it’s difficult
      to face it alone.
To know you must
      gather your darkness
or lose yourself to the animal
      that thrives therein. To vanquish
your losses in daylight,
      gather your life
by the scruff. Hold on
      to what you can.