- Have a nice day. Have a memorable day.
- Have (however unlikely) a life-changing day.
- Have a day of soaking rain and lightning.
- Have a confused day thinking about fate.
- Have a day of wholes.
- Have a day of poorly marked,
- unrecognizable wholes you
- cannot fathom.
- Have a ferocious day, a bleak
- unbearable day. Have a
- riotously unproductive day;
- a grim jaw-clenched, Clint Eastwood vengeful
- law enforcement day.
- Have a day of raging, hair-yanking
- jealousy and meanness. Have a day
- of almost grasping
- how whole you are; a finely tuned,
- empty day.
- Have a nice day of walking and circling;
- a day of stalking and hunting,
- of planting strange seeds and wandering in the woods.
- Have a day of endearing nonsense,
- of hopelessly combing your hair,
- a day of yielding, of swallowing
- hard, breathing more deeply,
- a day of fondness for beetles
- and macabre spectacles, of irreverence
- about anything you want, of just
- sitting and wondering.
- Have a day of wondering if it’s
- going to help, or if it just doesn’t matter;
- a day of dark winds
- and torrents flowing through the valley,
- of diving into cool water
- and gasping for breath,
- a day of sudden hunger for communion.
- Have a day when the crusts you each
- were given are lost and you stumble
- with your fellows
- searching endlessly together.
Lou Lipsitz was born in Brooklyn in 1938 and was for many years a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, where he taught democratic theory and political psychology. He is currently a psychotherapist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a focus on men’s issues. “Have a Day” is from his 2011 collection if this world falls apart, which won the 2010 Blue Lynx Prize and is published by Lynx House Press. It is used with permission.