Life is balanced
on a pinpoint.
Home, food, health, connections, work, meaning
sway precariously.
If one is pulled,
all is impacted:
Rocks and
Tips.
.
.
.
I’m thinking today of an extended family member who was in a serious car accident recently. One moment, all is well, the next some guy isn’t watching the road, jumps a meridian, and you’re in emergency. If you’re sole support, and you’re off work for a year of recovery, how does that impact everyone around you?
There is always an excuse
for not meeting expectations.
Someone else is always to blame
that you couldn’t meet expectations.
Everyone else is expected to leap
to meet your expectations.
Could you please just accept
responsibility for your actions?
.
.
Just a little venting. 🙂
Today you would be 101
Three months gone
Grief still takes me by surprise
a slice of pain hidden in the guise
of a song, or a day, or a vision.
I still see your sparkling eyes,
I hear your voice saying my name,
You became a hundred and one
times a hundred and one memories
and grief still weeps off each one.
Writing a paper
Still writing a paper
Tired of the paper
Still writing the paper
Which will end first? It or me?
(UBC-O Grad studies
micropoetry)
Daughter, wife, mother, student, teacher
each role I embrace in the search for myself
poet, writer, dancer, seamstress, preacher
constrained by expectations, trying to excel,
battling responsibilities, expanding my reach.
Stop.
I’m tired of being caught in this box!
I need to be free of these responsibilities;
I need to find me.
I don’t fit in this box, in this space or this place,
where I have been a chrysalis.
Now,
I a m o u t s t r e t c h e d,
gossamer wings unfolding from this abyss of my history,
from what they said I had to be–
what I thought I had to be–
I am embracing destiny;
accepting all the facets of my identity,
I have discovered
me.
Sickness weighs heavy
body aches as if it is encased in cement
limbs do not want to move,
throat scratches,
eyes droop,
incision throbs,
skin shivers.
Every part of me weighed down
and longing to fall into sleep.
.
.
.
I’m definitely coming down with something! Yesterday I was falling asleep at 8 p.m. Tonight it wasn’t even 6 p.m. Good night!
What a day, so much fun
but energy reserves are done
I drag myself into the house
wrap my arms around my spouse
Write you a poem, and then I’m gone
heading to bed with a jaw cracking yawn.
Shawn L. Bird 