MACKENZIE MOORE -

3 CARDINAL RULES

I. You cannot change people

II. You cannot project the change you want onto people

III. You cannot make people love you


Edicts carved into my coronaries

meant to stick like

thick, sluggish platelets

hoping they’d block up


The urge to run full force ahead

at people, trying to give alms;

plaster all the creaky spots;

listen to the sound of blood

pumping, steady, through

their coronaries

The urge to amend our edicts 

when we find something—

someone— worth abandoning the faith 

for, like trembling tectonics

The urge to run full force ahead

feeling the blood in your

coronaries, because you feel, 

unshakably, that it’s due north

and how might you ever put a cardinal
direction second to personal politics?

Mackenzie is a writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles who currently writes for television and podcasting. Her chapbooks Alms Basket For Your Heart (Variant Lit) and Bento Box (Kelsay) are out now. She believes bagels heal most wounds.

Twitter: @mxkmoore