Small Pleasures
Some nights, the ache in your chest
for all that’s wrong in your life,
for all the cruelty of this world,
will wake you with its crackling
bonfire of fears. But other nights,
you will fall asleep to the scent
of peonies left breathing in a vase
on the dresser, that bouquet of burst-
open hearts the last thing you see
before closing your eyes. You …