Acquired Tastes

There’s something I’ve learned being sick:

the acquired tastes are best.

And no, I don’t mean exotica.

I’m talking about the everyday magic

we avoid because, at least initially,

we are repulsed by its flavours,

or even its scent, before having partaken

of its rich benefit. I have found

that all enduringly good things

are initially unpleasant, even repulsive,

but that with time our bodies

grow to cherish them,

even to relish in their basks: And likewise,

whatever is immediately alluring and

instantaneously gratifying

loses its lustrous appeal

immediately, soon as it is gone,

and leaves even behind

a sickly aftertaste

in whose filth and glow

we seek another freedom,

turning, like fools, again

to what induced our agony in the beginning

all along. So, to forsake

the now for tomorrow

is to achieve

the now

tomorrow.

12/25/2016

Richmond