1. “Don’t let it get to you.”
Run fast, run hard.
It will persist, and although
it isn't vicious,
it itches to be fixed to you,
a monkey on your hip.
You must not slacken. Be
quick, maintain your distance.
2. “Skip it.”
Throw it like a flat stone low over water
so it skims. Watch it hit and jump,
repelled from the face of that lazy lake.
It will bump up again and again until lack
of momentum, coupled with the weight
of your revised plans, which conflict
with its laws of inertia, cause it to sink.
It won't be missed.
- first appeared in Verse Virtual, June 2025
Resist the Old Habit by Lavina Blossom | Sandalwood Poetry Reed Diffuser Set
Lavina Blossom is a visual artist and writer living in Southern California. Her poems and fiction have appeared in various journals, including 3Elements Review, The Paris Review, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Common Ground Review, Ekphrastic Review, 10 by 10 Flash, Every Day Fiction, and Okay Donkey. Her chapbook, Here to Be Remade, which includes poems and paintings, was published by Bamboo Dart Press.
