"You're complicating my life,"
an offhand remark at work--
the speaker not knowing,
and not to blame,
that I hear in the words
confirmation
of my darker fears:
I am a complication.
On balance,
I am more trouble
than I am worth.
I suppose, we all complicate
each others' lives.
Our root systems snarl,
fibrous root to spider-lace tip,
around each other.
You can't--
you cannot--
uproot yourself
without taking from others.
As a creationist spoke
of Antediluvian forests, I pictured
strange trees knit by tangle
of root and branch
into islands riding
a broad warm sea.
In such a case,
complication
holds life together.
an offhand remark at work--
the speaker not knowing,
and not to blame,
that I hear in the words
confirmation
of my darker fears:
I am a complication.
On balance,
I am more trouble
than I am worth.
I suppose, we all complicate
each others' lives.
Our root systems snarl,
fibrous root to spider-lace tip,
around each other.
You can't--
you cannot--
uproot yourself
without taking from others.
As a creationist spoke
of Antediluvian forests, I pictured
strange trees knit by tangle
of root and branch
into islands riding
a broad warm sea.
In such a case,
complication
holds life together.
I cherish the specificity and freshness of "fibrous root to spider-lace tip", and I like "islands riding a broad warm sea" -- "broad" being newer and better than "vast," seen in the first draft that you posted. Your conclusion is happily arrived at, without the clunkiness of a "moral" and with a pleasantly unexpected positive twist on the notion of "complication."
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing as you do!
Thank you, Tom!
ReplyDelete