Failure’s Not Your Friend

An unbounded Quatrain for Lit Up’s — April Prompt: Distraction

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

You are my distraction
You leave me soft and numb
The pen rolls out an open hand
Just for tonight - I will succumb

You cry for my attention
Demand I check again - again
Measure up against false illusion
Aspire for every make-believe mountain

You taunt on the precipice
One foot on the safety rope
Tied to the branch you burnt
An echo at rock-bottom, ‘See, I told you so’

You think I think too much
Keep me reaching for some relief
Enough with boresome thought work
Snort a line, roll a smoke, what’s on TV?

You and your best friend
Say the world’s a dangerous thing
Big fish in a little pond? Forget it -
You better swim in the kitchen sink

You have me shouting in the mirror
Staring at a plain white wall
Pacing ‘round a lunatic
Just to avoid it all

You should know better
though, know I’ll start…