Well, I guess no one can have everything. I must learn to celebrate when I fail. Inner growth and fortitude follow the sting, right? Won't I rise with holy wind in my sails? Yet they always seem to get what I want, door after door flung open. Why are the keepers of doors, who haunt the hopeful halls of fate and desire so partial to them, but not to me? Yes, I do feel sorry for myself—don't, brother, pretend the bitter blanket of self-pity, hasn't warmed your bones. It's not lovers or fame I crave, nor even happiness, particularly. Only to be lifted, just once, above all others.
Copyright © 2019 by Craig Morgan Teicher. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 5, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.