The pressures mount, and resolutions fail
like bridges with inadequate support,
for I am that, a structure with no rail,
a personality collapsed athwart
the tracks I laid so strictly for my path
(deluded me – good memory forgets
the engine ever choked on petty wrath
and shopping lists and seasonal regrets).

I vowed I wouldn’t tantrum any more.
I said I wouldn’t add to this old face
another line of anger or the score
of flailing judgment, but the truth is grace
and gentleness can’t live in me today.
There’s too much rubbish cluttering my way.