Mixed Messages
I read what you wrote in that notebook
the message you merrily scrawled
Someone such as me who has imbibed reality’s bitter brew
couldn’t help but be appalled by such a short sighted notion
though I’m sure you meant well
“It will all work out” you said
That wasn’t the case for me though I worked my ass off
to earn a scholarship and a degree to escape poverty
now over forty still working for minimum wage
instead of on the stage as I’d hoped to be
or the man down the street from me murdered recently
in his bed with a single shot to the head
by his new lover’s jealous ex boyfriend
dead simply due to who he chose to date
or my best friend who met her fate at age fifteen
a drunk driver unable to differentiate between red and green
The two beauty queens who both
plunged to their deaths from the balcony of buildings
The pregnant woman whose pelvis was crushed
when the hospital in which she was to give birth was bombed
begging those who rescued her from the rubble
to kill her when she realized the baby
within her womb wouldn’t be born alive
but I am sincerely happy for you that you’ve been blessed
with such bounty in your life that you
could believe those words to be true
Copyright © Angela Douglas | Year Posted 2022
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