Little Rituals

I prefer setting intentions
of goodness to
lingering in the dread
of bad things to come

I prefer wearing black
and seeing internal
kaleidescopes
to wearing colours
and living in darkness
in my mind

I prefer the sound
of Gregorian chanting
to the buzzing hum
of cocktail party small talk

I prefer books
taking words and
making them
pirouette
through space
to the empty words
of politicians on air waves

I prefer travelling alone
with strangers
in aircraft
rather than flying
with people I know

I prefer empty churches,
where the wood is infused
with incense and
the smell of melted wax,
where I can perform my own rituals
of love and longing,
to pews filled with people
miming hymns

I prefer life that is messy
with joy and sadness
to the sterile
perfection of Instagram
worthy pictures of life

I prefer my version
of reality to
reality TV

I prefer me
with you
rather than me
without you

© Tanya Southey

Based on an exercise inspired by a poem called “Possibilities” by Wislawa Szymborska that Joanne Fedler ran in her midlife memoir workshop.