Bring your glasses cleaner

your ketchup

your boots

your markers 

your jar full of candy

Be careful, vanilla hero

because the world will try to turn you into chocolate

Remember your roses and your books

stay hydrated

don’t forget to make time for your cheesecake, potatoes and Monopoly, your posterboards 

covered 

in abstract squiggles you call “art”

Beware

you love a world of nylon grass

but the real world is much more spiky

defend your soft underbelly against the hail

plate your glass eyes with foil

learn to pick the parasites from the people

 

But don’t let this process carmelize you

make sure your pumpkin insides shine through

 

Darling, carry with you always sheets of blank paper

or scribble records on any space you find

Fill receipts with your chicken scratch

if you’re really in a bind

 

Right now seems like forever 

but with a caravan of forevers waiting at a stop sign

your mind will be busier than 2016 highways

to Canada

 

Bottle those fragrances that will haunt you for years

sketch those people who right now seem so dear

but in months could be just another dried-out snapshot, a

contact in your phone

a name sewn on the back of your sweatshirt

 

Carry with you the streetlamps of Boston or Chicago

the outdoor smells of Beijing and Atlanta

the leaves of your home

Check a bag if you have to

but don’t leave your memories alone

 

I understand

that there are some things you don’t want to remember

but the sooner you empty them the better

the mind is not unlike a toilet bowl

pour your soul bacteria into a paper receptacle

feed it to the fire if you have to

 

Life is so fast for you now

but you step on the gas

 

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Please don’t leave me on the curb.