The crushing weight of expectations fills your cup
until the wine reverts to water
spilling all over your new tile floor.
Stainless steel appliances rusting. 

Guilt stains your bedsheets
like blood from a wound re-opened
with the letters you left unread.
These, unlike the tiles, will stain.  

You’ll paint over the dining room
and repaint bedrooms the same shade of green
so was the color really the problem?
Or was it the painter?