Try your best, why don’t you
I know you were one of a chosen few, battered and bruised
All owing to a crazy anxiety, twenty-years or so in absolute tatters
That’s all in the past now
Frightening perhaps, but atop all of that you do seem to have had something of a lapse in concentration
You keep on writing, sure, but I don’t see any of the elation, no such bathing in what you might have right now
On you will plow regardless, filling us with a serious sense of joy, attempting to take your particular ‘toy’ to the masses
But you need to see that people only ever reap what they sow
I really don’t know, why not even as much as consider teaching creative-writing classes
Paint on a smile, dictate to them a most theatrical show, a soliloquy flow
If one kid comes away from it with a smile of their own, a momentary glow, then there’s nothing else for it
You must keep on going
Teens departing your classes with mounds of pride, no longer embarrassed, feeling that they should hide their craft
That’s simply daft
Poetry ain’t for suckers, not if you can get it right, come along with your pen at the stroke of midnight, steal away for a time those far less than likely
You really do owe it to yourself to not end up upon that dust-ridden shelf
All about self worth
Health, that’s important too, you have seen the ads, an unhealthy demise, the chosen few who do take it upon themselves to smoke
Choke
How about a different type of toke altogether, because those clouds of smoke truly do stink, make you lethargic and feeling under the weather
Just think about it for now
Gather your belongings and don’t be at all afraid to steer your boat in the wrong direction
No need for discretion here
Turns out in the end the jeers can be just as life-altering as the jeers