Instructions

get on the plane
don’t get on the plane
stay home and print out a regret
fold the page in half and
hand it to a stranger on the street
who will take it home
to parse for honesty
forget password
enjoy the lockout
find solace in traces
pick a long-assumed boundary to expand
under enough stress, it will snap in two
this is a lesson, but hardly a revelation
breathe in an exhalation and
return the favor
expectorate accordingly
in warm clothes, sweat a fever’s worth of fear
stay afraid of getting sick
stop drifting so much
stop telling stories with
no words and only drift
murmur unfamiliar names in sleep
call or text anyone dreamt of
even if they are composite characters
let them down by the end of the conversation
cite any new thought for legitimacy
shit horribly in front of a crowd
just to demystify the experience
dissolve an entire timeline in acid
stop asserting reality
start with an apology
rank the last ten past lives
play dead
mourn openly, die in reverse

Daniel Schwartz is an editor at Inpatient Press, a small publisher of text and visual art based out of Brooklyn, New York. His writing has appeared in Really System, Thin Air Magazine, tNY.Press’s theEEEL, Blunderbuss Magazine, Dead Beats, Sein und Werden, Compass Rose, The Bellow Literary Journal, and elsewhere.