Nobody wants to be half

of something, “whole”

is so much better. What’s good

in a half—those half-baked

ideas never blossomed

into anything. The half-hearted

tries turned ugly for years

‘til we put our whole everything

into it. Half-assed, half-witted,

half-breed, half-dead. Let’s argue

about glasses half-full, tumblers

half-empty and how it’s

All in your head!

Your bubbling over optimism or oil

slick pessimism is all up to you. So

fill me up with something, I’m sick

of explaining my Cherokee half. I’ll take anything,

just swell me with wholeness

even once, even in passing, even

at the gamble of spilling it all

over the goddamned hideous floor.

–Jessica Mehta

Jessica is the author of The Last Exotic Petting Zoo (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize) and What Makes an Always published by Tayen Lane Publishing. She is the founder of MehtaFor, a writing company which serves a variety of clients including Fortune 500 enterprises and major media outlets. She’s a member of the Cherokee Nation and founded the Jessica Tyner Scholarship Fund in 2013 for Native students pursuing an advanced degree in writing. Find out more about Jessica on Facebook.