Dave Bonta's "Antidotes" is a short poem about two things: how to look at the world, and how to live with very little. The title suggests a cure for something, though the poem never says what the poison is. The first stanza names a way of seeing, "simply / beyond all words," where language stops getting in the way and every body, as the speaker puts it, becomes "wonderful." It reads like a wish for a kind of attention that doesn't judge or label.
The second stanza brings this down to earth. The speaker wants to meet other people as he finds himself, which suggests honesty and shared vulnerability. His situation is bleak: "ash for dinner" hints at loss or scarcity. Yet he holds "a little hope / the frost will break." The mood is quiet and humble. Nothing is promised, but there is tenderness in the hope, and the poem seems to say that kindness toward others may be the antidote.