Friday, August 14, 2020

Emotions They Rise and Fall: Reflections May 17, 2020


Emotions they rise and fall
When I take time to recall
The pain and the suffering
And the time I have spent buffering

Myself once more while I stall
Re-entering the world
Some say that it’s time
It fits all the rhythm and rhyme

And the seasons of life
And all things just right
To lay aside all fear
And to live just right here

I hear the roar of the waves
Pulling me under and no one to save
Me from the dread of it all
My story is one of the fall

And yet as I arise
I don’t want to be totally unwise
And go about those normal things
As if the past did not to me cling

Like poison ivy from the vine
Leaking into my soul
With those stories retold
Lest it come across like a whine

Which only bores
Those who’ve heard it before
And those who internalize the pain
Though there is nothing to gain

Other than identifying with me
Out of some amazing empathy
That is rare in this world
While I lay curled

Up like a child on my bed
Fighting hard to push away dread
Of the time I wished I was dead
Because the pain was more than in my head.

Is my fear way out of hand
Is there really nothing to this thing
Or is that thing in my ear I hear ring
The words I wear on my armband

Do not come here
It is you that I fear
That you are not safe
In my soul you do chafe

You come and go as you will
Not wearing a mask
Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill
No, I just think my task

Is to live
So I do not trust you
To have my best interests at heart
You are what you do

And so we’ll remain separated
Until this thing goes
Or until I am so exasperated
That I throw my hands and risk

The dangers that lurk within
The limits of a virus we do not know
Until that time I’ll not go
Out among the thick and the thin

Of people who care
Or those who don’t
I’ll be safe at home
My germs with no one to share.


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