ovid's transformations in poetry

today is the last day
of some phase in your life
you might not see it for years
you might never know because it's small
but every single day you live is
the end of something for you
today is the last day
of something
and the first of something else
but something is going to change

every story is a meta-story
every single one
the people who wrote the Bible
were dealing with some major sexist feelings
the people who wrote for Goofus and Gallant in Highlights magazine
were some pretty authoritarian classist motherfuckers
the only question is
if you have the eyes to see it
and/or the guts to admit it
every single story is a meta-story
especially the story of your own life
because you're the one
who gets to tell it
your biases
shape your self
but something's got to change

and sure yes
it's as they once said
not all who wander are lost
but let us also face it
most of us are
most of we who wander
are lost
have no goddamned idea where we are
there are those wandering who are not lost
but they are
the exceptions that prove the rule is all
but something will change

at the heart of the fantastic
is something mundane and
at the heart of the mundane
is something fantastic but
something wants to change

sleep like communism
is wonderful in theory
but in practice they're both
almost impossible to make work
and filled with fitful trembling
but something is going to change

you acquire fame because your ideas
resonate with the multitudes
fame slowly disconnects you
from that shared experience
and you've got nothing left
that resonates with anyone
fame eats itself
but something's got to change

we are all well-worn jigsaw puzzles
and our nightmares are the banged-up missing pieces
lost between the sofa cushions
hindsight isn't twenty-twenty
the moments you thought you made the wrong choice
you can't actually know
if that other path would've worked either
maybe it would've been even worse
all of the sorrow
and all of the genius
in the history of the human race
starts with the two simple words
"what if?"
we're weird like that
and we're gonna keep changing

faith is an old beaten rag
an exhausted fashion of the past
hard-won hope is the evergreen
hope is the new black
all that vengeance ever does
is triple the number of victims
all that thoughts of vengeance can do
is double that number at least
our word for work "Job"
is spelled just the same
as the name of a man "Job"
whose life was destroyed
so the minor volcano deity Yohowho
could win a dollar bet with the Devil
this is no coincidence
the hot-tempered jealous gods and goddesses of old
were sentenced to walk mortal lives
until their senseless wrath was exhausted
by whole lifetimes of love and despair
and they will change
eventually

we can look upon this life
as a series of already closed doors
to maintain some imagined pre-existing purity
or we can look upon this life
as a series of ways to explore
and challenge our ideas of who we are
the former feels secure in the moment but
the latter is a real adventure
myself I'd rather be a story
I am writing now than a story
than a story someone else wrote
before I was even born
embrace mutation
because something is going to change
whether you like it or not
something's got to change

wine after all
is simply vinegar
that hasn't had its heart broken yet
consider how bland our palate would be
without the taste of vinegar
and so we will change
and change
and change again
so we may as well embrace it
and taste it
because a change is coming
either way