"I Am Learning To Abandon the World" by Linda Pastan:
I am learning to abandon the world
before it can abandon me.
Already I have given up the moon
and snow, closing my shades
against the claims of white.
And the world has taken
my father, my friends.
I have given up melodic lines of hills,
moving to a flat, tuneless landscape.
And every night I give my body up
limb by limb, working upwards
across bone, towards the heart.
Continued here.
(Photo: A long exposure by astronaut Don Pettit while aboard the International Space Station, via Petapixel)
The Dish 