(When you realize a friend would rather let your relationship break than do the inner work required to fix it)
*****
It seems acceptable to you
To leave our issue ill-resolved,
Assuming my shortcoming by,
Discrepancies unsolved:
You think me less appreciative
Than I ought to be
For given blessings lately which
Have benefitted me
— By such excess
Endangering
What’s widely known as
“A good thing”
(Used in the common
Sense, which mean
That a survival
Instinct keen
Puts other
Interests to bed
To come out, in the end,
“Ahead”) —
But I see the
Advantage flow
Both ways twixt self
And anyone I know
However small,
However great,
Incentive to
Full well relate
To everyone,
Whate’er their role,
From genuine heart
True and whole —
Our thoughts and actions
Should intend
The good for every
Faithful friend
My heart those good
Intentions fit,
The truths I tell
Not changed a whit
With list’ning ears
Paying good heed
Unto each spirit’s
Truest need
I’d love to make
That clear to you
If I thought that
More words would do
What too many
So far have not —
Quite the reverse
(Depressing thought)!
So I find I cannot employ
My only skill — that is the word
Already inundated by
Too many you have heard
Remember what you know,
What you yourself have seen from me
In our own good relationship —
You, personally:
There’s been no lack of gratitude,
No hesitation reaching back,
No unreas’nable attitude,
Unwarranted attack,
Forsaking not the gracious
Arts cooperation of,
No shortage of consideration,
Unconditional love…
Though you, by myself, have
Treated with every fairness been,
As well as much appreciation
From this grateful woman seen,
Seems difficult for you to trust
That same to others I have been
Thus, though regretfully, I must
Abandon friendship we between
Hoping your cultivated
Social influence
From which I find me powerless
To further my defense
Somehow will fail to compromise,
In the looked-for end,
Credibility in eyes
Of any hoped-for friend
*****
The poet/editor of this website is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. Contributions may be made at:https://www.gofundme.com/are-you-a-patron-of-the-arts
