How To by Despy Boutris

                     ​Ben Seidelman CC



HOW TO

               after Natalie Shapero


How to learn to not turn back. How to step
forward into the puddled grass. How to define
want without saying windstorm. A windstorm
​
of want. A windstorm of sweetgum leaves.
A windstorm of thoughts beating, When will,
when will, when will I learn? As if we ever

really stop. Often my friends must remind me 
that adulthood doesn’t mean done or stable
or happy. I must remember that, like leaves,

we fall. If we can ever afford a house, 
let’s start a garden. I have never been afraid 
of dirtying my hands.

​

Despy Boutris is a writer. Her work is published or forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Southern Indiana Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, The Adroit Journal, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston, works as Assistant Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.

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