The Critic’s Brew

I’ve been sipping on that not enoughness brew again

Who hasn’t been steeped in the critic’s brew

made for survival under domination

generating forward motion,

upward mobility and procreation.

Infused with fear

poured out into every

word : edited

action: deliberated

life decision: filtered.

Whistling with piping hot

“do betters, “work harders”,

“succeed”, “be someone”

“do something with your life”.

The critic’s brew is

caffeinated : to motivate and mobilize

bitter : to ruminate and revise

and sweet enough: to keep wanting to taste its dripping drops

that activate and constrict at the same time—

Propelling forward, with a

corseted torso

a racing mind

wobbly legs and

an anemic heart that doesn’t know how to give itself love nor to receive

its nutrients without thirsting for more from its fallow chambers.

To wean off of the critic’s brew is to re-wire the pathways that have come to rely on its mobilizing effects

is to stare at the bottom of the empty mug

and not crave filling it with the liquid poison that tastes so familiar.

It is to hold the empty mug

and know that what you fill it with next

will never be as intoxicating

but may leave you hydrated

sated, with

enough to fill your cup

and some to pour out

to the next one ,

with love