“Tell me…” a poem by Margaux Paul

One Poem Only · Jun 11, 2025 · 2m

"TELL ME, WHAT IS IT YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE?"

-Mary Oliver

I plan on washing my sheets, cooking pasta, and cleaning

broken glass off the kitchen floor quickly lest it cut up any

little feet. I plan on eating peaches in the summer and

oysters only in months that end in -er because that's what

my mother taught me. I plan on making lovers out of poetry

and poetry out of lovers. I plan to eat tomato salad with

salt, oil, and hot French bread while my cousin regales me

with her stories. I will swallow the bitterness of missing

entire years together. I plan to say bless…