Achoo.

I prefer to go unblessed.

You tell me it says a lot about a person,
depending how they sell it: I prefer
to internalise, and though I am not superstitious
I close my eyes, cover my mouth. One posey
short of something from playground rhymes.

There is plenty of drama to be had
in the experience, and even space for words
if you have warning. I know some who do
and even you have anecdotes
of the noisiest kind, of violence unleashed.

Mine come upon me as quickly as the sun from clouds.
We sneezed into light from dark together once;
it took days to convince you that the odds
hadn't changed; that two in six was just the same
as one in three, the way you'd always been.