How to Survive This 

I won't check the news right now
  if you won't.
Instead, let's think about
  summer peaches so ripe
  we'll eat them leaning over the kitchen sink,
  or the crunching sound of walking on snow,
  and that dusty smell of the first rain,
Let's imagine how it would feel
  to put on warm socks right out of the dryer,
  fold a king-sized bottom sheet on the first try,
  and find those lost keys in a pocket.

In place of updates, alerts, and daily round-ups,
  bulletins, flashes, and re-reviews,
Why not sharpen a fistful of #2 yellow pencils
  and write thank-you's to our favorite teachers
  in cursive.
Or stroll alongside a playground
  listening for ear-piercing squeals
  only happy children make.
Or go bird-watching, lying on our backs
  waiting for fly-overs,
  while eating popcorn.

Of course, we could always
just pause between headlines
to come up for air,
suspended between thoughts,
and practice the dying art of
  exhaling
  very
  very
  slowly
before diving back in.

Diana Lynn