Bitterness

 

 

Are you bitter?

Do you carry a grudge?

Is your running oil contaminated

And converting to sludge?

 

Are you languid

With no get up and go

And you are putting in the effort

But still running slow?

 

Are you annoyed

By mostly trivial stuff

So much so that nothing is easy

But everything is tough?

 

Are you paranoid

And at odds with all

Feeling that everyone except you

Has to be a fraud?

 

 

Are you resentful

Over another’s success

To the extent that most nights

You can’t get a rest?

 

Are you behind most

But pretend to be ahead

And oft entertain thoughts like

You’d be better off dead?

 

Are you feeling uptight

Because you can’t relax,

With two steps going forward

And three pulling back?

Are you born again

Yet are stuck in a rut

And feel like you are spinning

Top in the muck

 

Are you seeking aid

Regarding your condition

But nobody so far has provided

A working solution?

 

If the above is true

Then consider again

That the very first question posed

Is key to your pain.

 

Are you bitter?

Do you carry a grudge?

Is your running oil contaminated

And converting to sludge?

 

Check your bitter bile;

It spoils everything,

It gets so deep in your system

You’re not able to sing.

 

 

It steals your joy

And the joy of others,

Bitterness like unforgiveness

Could be your bother.

 

Forgive and move on,

Let the bitterness go!

Often your offender doesn’t care

And this will show.

 

If you’ve been wronged

And there’s no apology,

Please make sure that bitterness

Doesn’t add insult to injury.

 

Stewart Russell © July 8, 2024

 

Why Can’t Everyone Be Like Us?

Sometimes I sit and wonder

Why people can’t be like you and me,

Why they must be so different

I am sometimes at pains to see.

Like for example a friend of ours

We just don’t see eye to eye,

We scarcely look at one another

And prefer to pass each other by.

But take you on the other hand

I like how you and I get along,

It seems we seldom disagree

And so neither of us is wrong.

If only the world were like us

 Imagine the harmony there would be,

Everyone would see eye to eye

Just like you and me.

I looked at a puzzle the other day

And no two pieces were alike,

Yet they fit so smugly together

And everything appeared quite right.

The whole picture caught my eye

Togetherness was the theme,

Though each piece was different

They created a lovely scene.

That picture causes me to think

About how I started this poem:

That because people are so different

This would be the problem.

Well that puzzle proves me wrong

It is the other way around

For if variety is the spice of life

Then diversity must be found.

If everybody were like you and me

Then we would all be stuck in a rut,

Pigs appear to be quite the same

No wonder they are always in muck.

So if at times we rub each other

It might be we’re coming together

Just like the pieces of that puzzle

That smugly fit to one another.

Stewart Russell (c) March 2019