Close your eyes and count to threeTell the wonders that you seeThen close your eyes and count to tenAnd tell us just once more againClose your eyes and now to sixSteel your bones and feel the fixSpread your mouth and count to fourCrack the window, peel the doorLift your chin and how about threeYou know it’s you I know it’s meFlap your ears and fly to sevenHeaven is what rhymes you know

And what of oneAnd how about two

Blue. And done. Better run Here comes five.

Welcome to The ALIVE hour.

Illustration: Shannon ColonAudio mixing / music: Chloe Riley(with Barbara Bohn)

Things found in real life

* This message, brought to you by a Chicago nail salon:

* This book from Louie Anderson (his last), in which he writes letters to his long-dead mother.

* (And this post-it, which is not my handwriting, but which I found and am now sticking on things):

Things found on the internet

* This inadvertent email poem from my dad:

* The message on this video ad:

* These words from this five-year-old boy:

You gotta say your affirmations in your mouth and your heart.

You say, ‘I am brave of this meeting! I am loved! I smell good!’

You gotta walk big. You gotta mean it. Like Dolly on a dinosaur. Because you got it.

* These words from Janis Joplin:

I’m scared. I think, ‘It’s so close. Can I make it?’ If I fail, I’ll fail in front of the whole world. If I miss, I’ll never have a second chance on nothing. But I gotta risk it. I never hold back…

* This relationship between this racing horse (now dead) and this donkey (still alive):

By all accounts, the two animals locked eyes and sent each other telepathic messages about hanging out together for eternity. From that point on, they were glued to each other, even sleeping in the same stall.

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