Here on the Island

Here on the island

I have coconuts

And I’m really not sure

Why I should leave

The other people

The ones who survived the crash

They got on this little boat

And sailed away

And I just wanted to ask them—

What are you sailing back to?

Bills?

Mortgages?
Student loans?

I didn’t say anything

Because it’s really none of my business

And also

I wanted the island to myself anyway

It’s been a lot quieter around here

Without all the crying

And talking about relatives back home

You know who I have back home?

A cousin with a Percocet addiction

And an older brother

Who sells those fake kids

You put out in front of your house

So the real kids don’t get run over

I’m good where I’m at

They won’t miss me

And I won’t miss them

Besides, people may thousands of dollars

To go to islands like this one

And not worry about anything

I got here for free

And I’m never going to have to worry about anything

For the rest of my life

Except for getting sick

Of eating coconuts

But I’ll get over that

I could learn how to hunt

But so far the only thing

I’ve found on the island

Is this one armadillo

With a bad leg

And the thought of eating him

Is enough to make me

Go vegetarian

He walks by me sometimes

At night

When I’m sitting by my fire

Watching the waves

Come up to the place

Where the beach meets the forest

I like to see how long I can sit there

Before the water reaches

My toes

I don’t know how long I can stay here

Before I die of something or other

But the way the world was going

When I left

I think predicting how long

Any of us are going to be around

Is a pretty big waste of time

I say just sit on the beach

And enjoy yourself

Just don’t sit too close

To the wreckage

Because the smell of gasoline

Is still pretty potent

And I had a hallucination

That my dead uncle

Was running through the forest

Chasing that poor armadillo

But then again

Maybe he was

Everybody has to find

Their own little place

In the world

And until I landed her

I wasn’t sure

I’d find mine

I was never a city girl

Because there was too much

Going on

But the country

Made me nervous

And the suburbs

Made me depressed

I never thought of an island

But I was probably scared

Of how lonely I would be

Then when I crashed here

I realized that it takes so much work

To not be lonely

It’s what I’ve been working at

My whole life

Maybe this was

Somebody’s way of telling me

That I needed to just…

Dig into it

Stay here

With just myself

And my coconuts

And find some way

To be happy about it

Nobody’s promised

A life full of people

You get what you came with
And usually

That’s you

So I’m here

And I’m alive

And I’m not going anywhere

But that’s fine

It’s fine

Because it has to be fine

Funny how nice it is

Not to have worry

About how you should feel

About your situation

Funny how nice it is

To just sit on the beach

And watch the beach

Become the ocean