Photo by Abed Ismail

Each day I get another chance
to stay in the present moment,
to be grateful for being alive,

another chance to give up sugar,
another chance not to give up sugar,
to ponder on my prior selves,

recall teen dreams of fame,
clean-out closets, comprehend life,
spill milk, love it all,

to wonder who I really am,
earn my keep, value my body,
see with fresh eyes

the sun, stars, and moon,
be satisfied, bored, worthy,
smile at being human,

to have that hallmark day,
smooth and sublime, for when
I run out of chances.

(published by Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts)

:: Jeanie Greensfelder

By Jeanie Greensfelder

Jeanie Greensfelder served as the San Luis Obispo County poet laureate during 2017 and 2018. Her poems have been published at American Life in Poetry, Writer’s Almanac, and Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day; in the anthologies “Paris, Etc.” and “Pushing the Envelope: Epistolary Poems”; and in the journals Miramar, Thema, Askew, Persimmon Tree, and others. Her books include “Biting the Apple,” “Marriage and Other Leaps of Faith,” and “I Got What I Came For.”