4.02.2023

laughter is a floatation device

When it’s time to enter the great waters, 
you, who’ve been properly loved since birth, 
will likely feel on top of the world, 
lacking the useful defenses the unloved have. 
 
Try to remember that on top of the world 
is only an expression, nothing to hold onto, 
and if there were such a place, 
no doubt there’d be a host of angels 
 
who might think it their territory. 
You would need to be careful 
of the jealous, bitter ones 
who haven’t gotten the best assignments. 
 
It might be the right time to cultivate 
disbelief, which can make certain angels 
disappear. Actually, disbelief is always useful, 
helps the discriminate discriminate. 
 
Those of you properly loved will believe 
your biggest mistakes can be overcome. 
You will have learned laughter 
is a flotation device, and uproarious laughter 
 
the password to moments of fine feeling. 
It means the angel assigned to you at birth, 
the only one you believe in, has already wrapped 
his wings around you, is doing his job. 
 
Still, there’ll be turbulence as you enter 
the great waters. Love alone can’t save you, 
and disbelief only frees you long enough 
to see clearly where you’re going. 
 
But the loved have a history of shifting 
as the world shifts, and a vague sense 
how good and bad blend, become one. 
Don’t worry if you can’t tell the angelic 
 
from the hellbent, or the exact meaning of guidance. 
Confusion won’t hurt you. This is your chance 
to row as hard as the unloved, whose task 
from the beginning was to exceed all expectations. 
 
[Stephen Dunn {1939-2021} 'Nothing to Hold Onto', from Lines of Defense: Poems]

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