I wouldn’t say I feel like this all the time. But there are moments. I wanted to share this poem because I feel it’s something a lot of people can relate to. This poem is from The House Loved Us, available on Amazon.

When you give me a bottle of

bath oil for my birthday after

seeing I only take showers.

Or you say you admire me for all

my close relationships and then

sulk when I visit a needy

friend.

When the son I adore

can’t get a job

in the public sector

because there is no longer

any interest in the

public interest

When my childhood friend,

now sick, divorced

and the mother of

two teenage boys

can’t get enough

food stamps

under Reaganomics.

When my mother asks me

to come for a visit,

and when I do

berates me for never

coming to visit.

When the local policeman

gives me a ticket

on the first day of Spring,

after he hides in the bushes

waiting to make me feel like

a criminal for not making

a complete stop.

And my daughter’s landlord

who reveres Polish solidarity,

reads The Nation

and believes he believes

in the common man

raises her rent illegally.

I bristle when the

local town officer asks

a twenty-five-year resident

to notarize a statement that his

grown daughter really lives

with him since her divorce.

I feel contentious…

When I never have enough money no matter

 how hard I work.

When I feel life has suddenly gone by and I have

 only done one-third the things I wanted to.

When a close friend refers to someone as

 a Jew boy.

When I realize I’m just one person.