modeled on meg kearney’s, who was the director of the national book foundation‘s summer writing program.  and i do know the sun is, scientifically speaking, a star.

Creed

I believe it all starts at the end.  I believe I’ll never
catch my breath unless someone else does it for me.
I believe in winter but going outside naked; we’ll all
make it through alive if we just have some thick
skin.  I believe in love before the lover.  Don’t tell
me to describe what will be my perfect man, ask
instead.  Does he, in you, stir up more than feeling,
does he answer no he doesn’t when I say yes he
does, does he warrant unintentional innuendo?
What is he doing in you?  I believe in breakfast
foods for dinner.  I believe in chivalry to a point,
and in Sesame Street Band-aids.  Someone once
called me a brand-name whore, and I agreed.  I
believe in crunchy over creamy.  I believe in
dropping names outside of conversation and I
believe if a poem has books, Odysseus, maybe it’s
time to come home.  I believe in I won’t leave a
number but I’ll call you back later.  I believe in fake
jade rings.  I believe there’s no gain in being a good
keeper of secrets, and in mementos.  I believe in a
jazz thirty-second note.  I believe I’ll be from New
York forever, “no shirt, no shoes, no service”
promotes equal rights but is missing something far
more important, and that any city that speaks every
native tongue plus –lish effortlessly has left its mark
on the world.  Everything bagel with vegetable
cream cheese (breakfast), sushi or a salad midday,
Indian? Middle Eastern? Greek, maybe (first
dinner), and any other Asia for the second—yes, I
have a fetish.  I believe in new underwear and
sleeping in men’s pajamas; I believe the sun is not a
star and that the world cannot end in 2012.  I
believe in simplicity and serendipity.  I believe the
strongest only come from the weakest and that, like
me, they only fear what they have overcome,
because the second time around, the secret to
winning has become a blur.  I believe in never
kissing the ground anyone walks on and only being
made for a few things at a time in life; yours his
mine the world’s footsteps a secret only allowed out
with permission, after curfews, and under a certain
influence.