Instructional Video for Your Poetry Adventure

VCR begins to hum and a light appears on the screen.

“Hello, Poet of the future. I'm NAME REDACTED, and I will be your host for today’s poetry adventure.”

Sound of glimmering horns plays.

“Before we begin, I’d like to thank our sponsor NAME REDACTED. When you need to ACTION REDACTED in a ADVERB REDACTED, look no further than NAME REDACTED.”

Sound of horns ceases. 

“Today we will write a special poem. It is about a dream you had for your adult life. If you are not yet an adult, think about something you want to do with all of your heart. You can write about that. Got it? Good, now follow my lead:

1. Go outside your home and check the mail.
2. Look at the mail.
3. Shout: ‘Alvin has never lived here!’ at a piece of misaddressed mail. It doesn't matter if the letter is properly addressed, or even if your name is Alvin. It is, as they say, part of the ritual. 
4. Begin weeping with great violence in front of your mailbox. You may consider movements such as: 
   -Raising both fists to the sky.
   -Shouting the word ‘why’ in the same direction
   -Trying to pry your mailbox away from its post to throw down to the ground and stomp it out.
   -Some combination of all three.
   Consider the choreography of combinations. Act with reverence and zeal.
5. When your neighbor comes out to check on you (perhaps mid-stomp on your now broken mail receptacle) or, if you live on a busy street, a Good Samaritan pulls over in their 2013 Hyundai Sonata (Certified Preowned and purchased at NAME REDACTED), accept their gentle, worried affirmations that are made out of a combination of genuine care and moderate sense of obligation. Yes, you are correct; they do not know you at all. Yes, you might be broken beyond repair.” Sounds of Glimmering Horns “Turn it off! Don’t hit play until I tell you to.” Vague mutterings, the music stops. Excuse me. No, that does not mean you should chase the helpful hand on your back away with primal yelps and the large rock and/or pieces of the mailbox at your feet. 
6. Wipe your tears away and mumble thank you. You will need to rehydrate for the tears that come another day.
7. Go back inside your home.
8. Stare at your surroundings. Your couch has seen better decades. The walls, however, clean like the day they were first painted. That day was not today.
9. Go to the kitchen and prepare your dinner. It is leftovers that you need to microwave. Place them in a glass container, set the container gently in the microwave, and set it for 1:23.
10. Watch your food spin around in the yellow light inside the heat bath the microwave has created. Wonder: What does food dream about before it is rendered unable to do so any longer? What if its dying wish was to move on a circular ceramic plate in dirty light? Would it have died happy?
11. Take your food out of the microwave with extended fingers. Be careful, the glass is sometimes skin-melting in temperature. It really depends on the day, though.
12. Eat your food, preferably in silence. You should take a cooking class, or buy a better class of foodstuffs, or one of those fancy food delivery services.” Camera Falls. Ominous crunching sound. “Did you even check the balance on the tripod?” Muffled sound of a voice. “I told you I wanted production OF value, not value production.” Phone rings. “It’s just a telemarketer.” Muffled sound of a voice. “No. Just keep it rolling, I know your hourly rate. Where was I?
13. Open the mail. It is filled with bills and special offers for things you are not currently interested in, nor will you be without a radical intervention in your life. Credit card interest rates sounds like a layer of hell you know you will one day visit. Oh, this one has a handwritten return address! Go ahead and open it. You’ll be dismayed to find that it is just an attempt at personalization from a contractor. 
14. Wonder: Is this all I have left?
15. Go to the living room and watch SHOW REDACTED. They have it all figured out, even if this is scripted. A life of foibles and grandeur on display in a commercial-ridden hour arc of sound and picture. This is what I’m talking about when I say ‘of value,’ NAME REDACTED. You and the swines at your billing department should take note.
16. Go to bed.
17. Repeat until you die.
18. At your eventual death, imagine the feeling of being placed on a ceramic plate. Bathed in a wash of heat, and rotated in a clockwise circle. 
19. Be consumed. Alvin, of course his name is Alvin, is hungry and has had a long day.”

VCR whirrs with vocal aggression Tape unspools begins to smoke

Glittering horns stab in and out as the picture sheets diagonally and mixes with a deep static grain.

“This has been another poetry adventure with your host STATIC INTERRUPTS…thank you and remember, we are…”

Tape ejects without prompting. It is smoking. The VCR clock blinks 12:02 AM.