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.