Overcast (poem)

Overcast

Self-abnegation hunting insects

All chemistry or all dispassion

not dissected by ego and asked to answer

The tailored monument to Jones or Brown or Miller

We can’t feel surprised

What, Mr. Jones, is atonement

What, Ms. Brown, do you call repentance

How, Miller, do you ask forgiveness

You needed training…if your simple assignment

was to value solely the one assigned

If it were yours and you had some pride

His story is that he has

Atoned, Jones

Not blessed with all life’s graces

he judges, sizing others up he passes

Fair, that is, equal, gets distributed in a way not so

You’ve already paid, you are always paying

Ms. Brown is always borrowing, tends to repent nothing

Credits herself a year’s income, sells a few things

Uses the principle of 99

Thinks she’ll never live so long, tells her kids

retiring loans is making it on your own

No mercy

Miller says you can’t show weakness

Treasures this as an axiom of business

His idea broadly that others win

when you look like a loser

Though nine times put to the test, the tenth

maybe…

This, in a limited way, is true

Overcast

Side of Life

Field Marks

(2020, Stephanie Foster)