I don’t normally give credence

to stray comments loosed in meetings,

but the low point of the semester

coincided with my heightened attention

to produce the usual mess

that triangulates into a poem.

I wish I could say 

that I want to save everyone,

but I abandoned my youthful reveries

filled with gratified crowds

to give myself fully

towards making the bricks 

for future revolutions.

I may be a Leo, 

even after years of denial, 

but as a fellow Leo revealed to me today,

we share our stories

not because we relish ourselves

but because we use them as bridges

to communicate our understanding 

of your crises. 

Although this colleague 

may not have directed

this comment pointed as sharp as a nail at me,

it found a home in my flesh anyway.

No, I do not feel the need 

to sacrifice myself through my work,

but I wish that I could answer him

that I understand the bitterness that swells

as we realize what we have lost

even as we have saved ourselves.