Enter Passcode

Shane Schick

Choose something difficult for others to guess.

Not the month and the year you were born.

Maybe the number of times you’ve wished things were different,

or the grand total of mistakes you’ve managed to make over and over again.

Tally up the worries that came to nothing,

the hours you spent acting like God doesn’t exist.

Count the votes of confidence you’d need to quit wondering

whether you could do what you tell yourself you yearn to do.

Dial all but one of the digits that would begin the process

of ending the argument, of potentially making up.

Estimate the days you think you have left. If it exceeds

the allotted six figures, just imagine the rest.

Match the alphabet from “one” to “twenty-six” and invent

a word that summarizes all you know but cannot prove.

Don’t write this down. Let your fingers ritualize it until

it becomes a gesture expressing a truth so secret

nothing, and no one, would be smart enough to unlock it.