According to the Gospel of Yes

It’s a thrill to say No.
 
The way it smothers
everything that beckons―
 
Any baby in a crib
will meet No’s palm
on its mouth.
 
And nothing sweet
can ever happen
 
 
             
 
 
to No―
 
who holds your tongue captive
behind your teeth, whose breath
whets the edge
 
 
             
 
 
of the guillotine―
 
N, head of Team Nothing,
and anti-ovum O.
 
And so the pit can never
engender
 
 
             
 
 
the cherry―
 
in No, who has drilled a hole
inside your body―
 
No.
Say it out loud.
Why do you love the hole
 
No makes.
 

Copyright © 2017 by Dana Levin. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 9, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.