Swallow.
That's what we all do best.
The most important lesson we ever learn
is how to keep digesting without
expelling or rejecting.
First, we swallow our curiosity.
find a place in our bodies to put all the
"why not's" and "how come's"
until we are too full of them to keep
asking for more.
We swallow our exuberance until
that, too, is gone, leaving only
half a plate of passivity
with a side-dish of grace.
The main course consists of
a huge platter of self-esteem
(you'll find it on the menu under
selfishness or feminism).
It takes a long time to consume it,
but eventually that too is gone.
Curiously, it leaves us not feeling full,
but empty and wanting.
This hunger prepares us for
all the rest of the meals we will ever eat.
It gives us the ability to swallow
entire dreams, identities, and goals,
without once ever seeming to feel
too full to keep on eating.
Every once in awhile, we are jarred somehow
and expel a piece or two of these
long-forgotten repasts.
It pains us to have to chew them up and
swallow them again,
after we get a chance to see
what the ingredients really are.
And sometimes, even rarer,
one of us decides not to eat it again
but instead keep it for herself.
If she's really sick, crazy, or demanding
(or maybe a true gourmet),
she might decide to regurgitate the remains
of every meal she ever ate
that she didn't ask to
swallow.