Starting Over - March 27 2024

 

Starting Over

March 27 2024

You can always start over.

Burn it down.

Write it off.

Leave it behind,

receding in the rear view mirror.

Which you did;

time after time

picking yourself up off the floor

just to get knocked down again.

But eventually

   —   eyes blackened,

bloodied badly,

and punch drunk

from too many hits   —

you’ve had enough

and throw in the towel,

tap out,

run up the white flag.

You resort to cliches,

and screw originality.

Because life is short

and your life force

is inexorably ebbing away.

After all, not every poem

can hit it out the park,

every metaphor

remain unsullied.

Tomorrow, I’ll write more.

But for now

I’m phoning it in,

taking the path of least resistance,

resting on my laurels.

With a defiant what-the-hell

scorning pedantry

and mixing metaphors.