It’s good to have a just in case,
a spare key in the flower pot.

Everyone deserves a dividend,
a eulogy, a roadmap, a working device,

a way to mitigate the defaults
of cold silence and dark space

when the old standbys fail.
We burn chairs in the fireplace,

light a candle, scream into a void,
make a call, flip a switch, pull a trigger;

we oversell, overdo, overstate,
convince them to suspend disbelief,

to take advantage of breathing.
The air is plentiful, we say.

Get as much as you can.