{"id":8544,"date":"2015-09-17T23:13:11","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T23:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=8544"},"modified":"2015-09-17T23:46:54","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T23:46:54","slug":"commiseration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2015\/09\/commiseration\/","title":{"rendered":"Commiseration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week was National Suicide Prevention Week<\/strong><\/a>. \u00a0 I should have posted this poem then. No matter.<\/p>\n

I offer it to anyone who has screwed up, to anyone who feels shame so deep they don’t know how to get out from under it.\u00a0 I’m rooting for you.<\/p>\n

Commiseration<\/strong><\/p>\n

This poem is for those who have whispered
\nin desperate urgency:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me get away with it this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps finished this invocation
\nwith a promise to change:<\/p>\n

\u201cLord,\u201d you may have called upon
\na power greater than your own,<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t let anybody find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet it all be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me slide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust this once.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have offered to the universe my wobbly fate.
\nTo whatever power casts the lots
\nI have pled my case, appealed and begged
\nnot just for forgiveness,<\/p>\n

(All day long I relived my stupidity,
\nmy lapse, my bad judgment, the mistake.)<\/p>\n

but to let it slide \u2013 to let this blunder go
\nunnoticed, like:
\nthe tipsy driver who makes it home safe,
\nthe thief who gets the goods,
\nthe user who has this one last time;<\/p>\n

shame that\u2019s never exposed to light.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re in a car,
\non an airplane,
\nor behind the dark of your own closed eyes,<\/p>\n

and you implore, with all the mindfulness of a mantra:
\n\u201cPlease, please,
\nplease let me get away with it this time.
\nI\u2019ll never ask again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a screw up,\u201d you admit,
\nown it, call yourself out,<\/p>\n

\u201dbut, please,
\nplease let it turn out okay
\nin the end,
\nthis one time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the burnout in the stall copping the buzz,
\nthe mother who leaves her kids alone for just fifteen minutes,
\nthe big talker who\u2019s got the score to settle all scores,
\nand that kid who books without so much as a call;<\/p>\n

for knowing it\u2019s bad and doing it anyway.<\/p>\n

For anyone on their knees
\nsupplicant and ashamed, guilty,
\nthis poem is for you.<\/p>\n

Not that it matters,
\nnot that a poem is what you need,
\nbut because it is the only way
\nI have to reach across this page
\nto let you know
\nit may not be easy to find your way back,
\nbut try.<\/p>\n

Try.<\/p>\n

And if you can\u2019t, this poem is still for you,
\nI\u2019ll never take it back,
\nbecause it might be all that you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

Someone wrote a poem for you once.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Ellen Wade Beals, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"514SldM4lGL._SX398_BO1,204,203,200_\"<\/a>This poem originally appeared in Lummox<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, Number 1, 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week was National Suicide Prevention Week. \u00a0 I should have posted this poem then. No matter. I offer it to anyone who has screwed up, to anyone who feels shame so deep they don’t know how to get out from under it.\u00a0 I’m rooting for you. Commiseration This poem is for those who have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,2708,12,2711,2714,2713,2710,139,1352,2707,39,13,2712,2709,7,16,2705,2706,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-8544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-anthology","8":"tag-commiseration","9":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","10":"tag-guilt","11":"tag-humanity","12":"tag-jesuss-son","13":"tag-keep-on-keeping-on","14":"tag-love","15":"tag-lummox","16":"tag-national-suicide-prevention-week","17":"tag-photography","18":"tag-poetry","19":"tag-screw-up","20":"tag-shame","21":"tag-solace","22":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","23":"tag-suicide","24":"tag-suicide-prevention","25":"tag-weighed-words","26":"entry","27":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8544"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8552,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions\/8552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}