I was going to write about sorrow but I
don’t like where that’s going,
don’t like how it conjures
the ambiguity of having and not having,
the ruin of mistake,
the mistake of ruin,
a voiceless groan of catastrophe
that never fully arrives
and never quite leaves,
weighing us down like a greatcoat
on a sunny day in August.  

No, I’ll steer clear of sorrow.
I won’t give sorrow a story.
Stories are all lies, anyway,
we invent to cover the truth.  

Yes, I’ll steer clear of sorrow.
Instead, I’ll keep my peace.
Doing so requires discipline.
All of us are disciples.