Guidance

Sometimes I throw out
a casting call
for a
Celestial Being

to play the part of
Guidance Counsellor
in the
One Act Play
I’m calling
“Should I
Keep Trying
To Write
This Novel
That Doesn’t Seem
To Be Going
Anywhere?”

If any Angels
have shown up
to audition,
they’ve been invisible
and apparently
reluctant to
read for the part
out loud.

But, a day
or so ago
I thought I heard
a whisper:

“Just don’t quit
on it.”

I tried to
follow up,
but they
didn’t leave a
cellphone number.

C’mon,
I could have gotten
that advice
from a matchbook cover
or a fortune cookie.

But I began
to recall
some times
I didn’t quit,
like

trying to write
a poem,

or looking for
a place
surrounded by
the sea,
with a haunted
castle and
its own
film festival,

or how about this:

looking for
The One
on the couch
across from me,
before I knew
she existed.