Because there was a word on the other side.

(Or was there? Put your reading glasses on.

Stop! Go back! Something dangerous is coming! False alarm, it was only the Parents Association volunteer sign-up spreadsheet. But there is definitely a word out there GO GET IT GO GET IT!

Ooooh, is Facebook open? A status update about baby capuchin monkeys! Go back. You’re in dangerous territory. No, get that goddamn word, you need it.

Should you cross now? What about now? What about now? Or now? How about now? Maybe now?

Go to the Writer X-ing sign. The fluorescent yellow diamond with too many adjectives. Dammit, the sign has been removed for further editing!

Okay, lie down and wait for roadside assistance, you obviously have a flat ego. Once confidence is restored, continue lying down. Let’s call this a residency.

You’re up!

Now scamper out! Come back!

Scamper out! Come back!

Scamper out! Come back!

Let’s call this submission-rejection-submission-rejeciton-submission-rejection!

Now scamper out! Go big! THE WRITER IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD!

Shit. It’s a four-lane highway.

In desperate times, call your friends and ask them to create a Word Train for you, which is like a Meal Train, except that people throw you a life-line of sustainable words, and Soul Train, except that you get behind a really good word and strut and jazz hands your way to safety.)

Here’s to all of us squirrelly writers and getting to the other side of that road.

Again and again and again.

May 2016 be full of more words like YES and GO, and less of NO and SPLAT.