Friendly Advice to a Lot of Young Women

Visit your mother.
Pet an elephant.
Read Wuthering Heights.
Make a sweater.
Don’t shave.
Backpack across Europe in a hot air balloon.
Watch CNN.
Pick your nose.
Date a man who never smiles and wear lipstick.
And watch him while he sleeps.

Wash your hair with laundry detergent.
Drink first thing in the morning and fall down stairs at dusk.
Get into interior design and start a punk rock band.
Stick your face in the oven and compose a sonnet.
Go to karaoke alone.
Forget your children.
Apply to be VP.
Crawl into a basket.
Strangle yourself with a vacuum power cord.
Change your oil at midnight.

But don’t read Bukowski.