Sameness
July 22, 2012
And so you look at me every day with those same eyes
Unblinking, unseeing, the sameness, always the same
And you asked
(you’re serious, that’s the heartbreak of it all)
What is wrong with my life,
Why aren’t I happy with the same landscape
Crisped by drought or under three inches of ice it’s still the same,
Always the same,
And the day is the same and the night never changes.
And you tell me I should be grateful
And you talk of children starving in Africa
But how do you know,
Can you be so very certain that I’m not a cautionary tale
Told to those thin black children,
“Be grateful, little ones, because your life could be worse,
You could be that unchanging, unhappy woman
In America who is dying every day
Slowly so slowly
Of sameness.”
July 22, 2012 at 13:06
We each live in our own personal reality and though we can empathize for others sorrow and poor circumstances, at the end of the day, we are left with our life and our reality.
July 22, 2012 at 19:09
Exactly, Sis! Besides, I can’t stand being told to compare my circumstances to someone else in order to feel grateful. I’m sorry, but that’s not gratitude. That’s “guiltitude” and I refuse to buy into it.