Etiology

Etiology

The source of all my troubles is comparison

Comparison always leaves me wanting

Or it leaves me full of pride

It has never placed me in the streams of peace

Never has it put me in the fields of love

Never has it let me sleep the night away

In dreams of wonder and awe

Everywhere I go now

I am judged and compared

I can’t sing like the one on the radio

So I forever stop singing and meekly listen

I’m not beautiful like the one on the gilded screen

So I don’t place my ugly anywhere in the world

Even where it is desperately needed

I can’t write like the laureate 

So I drop my pen

The poems are never born

I can’t dance like the ones on the stage

So I am still

Winds of joy never move over the earth

In other words

I compare

And I die

We wonder why there is such a despair in our world

It’s time to live

It’s time to stop comparing

To stop quitting because I don’t “measure up”

To hell with your ruler

To hell with your rules and measures

I am me

There is no other like me

Never will there ever be

I was planted in this world to grow

That is exactly what I plan to do

To grow right where I am planted

And not worry about the weeds around me

Or the weeds within

I will look to where the sun is

Ever growing toward the light

I will sing

I will laugh

I will dance

I will be who I am

And Life will permeate the earth

I will no longer compare

3/17/19