Thank you to Mark Antony Rossi for publishing my poem in the August issue of Ariel Chart. 

https://www.arielchart.com/2021/08/the-unworkable-puzzle.html

The Unworkable Puzzle?

 

When introspection goes awry.

Rumination,

the thinking tease of deep consideration,

scratching the brain.

 

The wrecked development of once lucid plans

by poisonous clumps of stacked thoughts, piled askew,

compulsive spiral schemes developed

to bring forth mad truths that are not actually truths. 

 

Or,

indecisive trudges back and forth, 

born of buzzing restlessness.

 

Or,

Repeated attendance

to details that were already long concluded,

readdressed,

now once again not completed.

 

Caustic enticements, 

obsessive notions held tightly by meshed rigor.

Weedy stragglers,

clogging passageways of thought,

strengthening obstacles, 

and causing withering deflation to what might work.

 

We must find our way 

past becoming redundant, sullen customers 

in the shops of sorrow,

selling cloaks of collective misery,

while brooding on negative events.

 

We must stop and weigh

all our options for moving forward,

close doors to what has never worked,

pull all other choices into the light of day,

so that no more doubts can be obscured by shadows.

The Unworkable Puzzle?

 

When introspection goes awry.

Rumination,

the thinking tease of deep consideration,

scratching the brain.

 

The wrecked development of once lucid plans

by poisonous clumps of stacked thoughts, piled askew,

compulsive spiral schemes developed

to bring forth mad truths that are not actually truths. 

 

Or,

indecisive trudges back and forth, 

born of buzzing restlessness.

 

Or,

Repeated attendance

to details that were already long concluded,

readdressed,

now once again not completed.

 

Caustic enticements, 

obsessive notions held tightly by meshed rigor.

Weedy stragglers,

clogging passageways of thought,

strengthening obstacles, 

and causing withering deflation to what might work.

 

We must find our way 

past becoming redundant, sullen customers 

in the shops of sorrow,

selling cloaks of collective misery,

while brooding on negative events.

 

We must stop and weigh

all our options for moving forward,

close doors to what has never worked,

pull all other choices into the light of day,

so that no more doubts can be obscured by shadows.