when you are hungry

You take on the shape of the things you swallow. Be careful of people who are kites, who make
you rise so sweet, tangle you in trees & wires: the same shocks that give you ecstacy can steal
your life. Swallow horses if you feel strong enough to gallop for miles across landscapes,
tossing your mane in the sun. What I am saying is: you are what you eat. Eat oceans. Eat the
moon with your eyes, the wind with your skin. Do not eat too much. Do not be so full you
cannot swim the rivers or wake
when it is time. Better yet, take the world
into you in smallest bites, only what you need. Leave the rest. You take on the shape
of the things you swallow. Swallow rainbows. They suit you. Swallow love.

Born in Ohio, Michelle Tibbetts is a poet and mother and Licensed Massage Practitioner. She traveled here 4½ years ago, fell in love with the ocean and sky and rain, and never went back.