Why I Write

By Elizabeth Smith

To peek into someone else’s world
    or create a new one altogether.

To cast down the golden calf
    of logical reasoning, of charting
        the past-present-future on a graph

            without sentiment.

To warn myself against myself,
    through logical reasoning.

To prevent my becoming a broom
    continuously removing my children’s
        cracker crumbs.

To rest my legs.

To give voice to the bees in my brain
    so they might not hum so loudly.

To give myself a morsel.

To share a morsel with another.