Thank you to Shahadat Hossain Shaan of Local Train Magazine 
for publishing my poem today.


https://amiektashahadat.wordpress.com/2020/07/21/what-i-would-have-told-you-linda-imbler/

What I Would Have Told You

Please use your earlier bending

toward a loving heart

to soften your hard eyes.

Pour in less quick-hardening concrete to caulk 

your ducts against flowing tears

is what I would have told you

if you had given me the chance.

Correct the begrudging limp of your compassion.

It’s the excessive result of all your minions

digging how you move.

Know that construction workers of idoltary

are wise to use hearts as foundations 

is what I would have told you

if you had given me the chance.

Retire your heartless psychotherapy.

Do not accept the job as a dastardly logician.

Your rudimentary correctness

keeps you too insensitive.

Being passionate about small things

is a beautiful obligation

to bettering oneself

is what I would have told you

if you had given me the chance.

The chances you now take will be your own.

Just let me tell you that I will still be here,

heeding my own advice,

when the crash of your world arrives.