No Matter How Much I Try

A poem about overthinking and hope.

She Thinks of the Ghost or The Ghost Thinks of Her (Manao tupapau) (ca. 1894–1895) by Paul Gauguin. Original from The Art Institute of Chicago.

No matter how much I try,
sun keeps flourishing at dawn
blinding my efforts to suffer
for things I haven’t done.

No matter how much I try,
birds keep singing in the backyard
stating how simple life was
before I decided to try so hard.