I dance on the graves
of those who I love
because it is better to live
and laugh than to cry
and wallow in grief.

I dance in the rain and I
slip and skin my knee
because it is better to fly
too close to the sun and fall
than to have never lived at all.

I devour books like they
can keep me safe from the night
because it is better to
imagine and live in fiction
than to be stuck in an unhappy reality.

I burn brownies in the oven
and eat them while they are still too hot because it is better
to jump in with both feet than to wait too long.

I watch the same movies over
and over again, knowing every
line because it is better to love
everything passionately than to
not love anything that much at all.

I stay up so late that it
is actually early because
it is better than doing
nothing and my crowded thoughts
have no patience for sleep.

Simply,
I live
because
it is
better.