Challenging Poetry

What's on your mind?

I never know what to say.
How can I freeze
an ocean of wisps
and threads and fragile
connections into a single
idea without losing
everything? And so I say,
“Nothing,” and “Everything,”
and “I'm confused,”
and “What was the question?”
and then add a random
thought that carries
the conversation
down a different curlicue,
so when asked again,
I can say, “I can't remember,”
and it's generally true,
because that point in the sentence
has been edited away as I said it,
that point in the tsunami was moments ago,
and I'm riding a new wave,
that point in the ride is over
and the dragon is soaring on,
that point in the avalanche
is buried, and I'm enveloped
in new snow.

April 21—Poem based on a question