National Poetry Month – US – Day #1

National Poetry Month, a celebration of poetry which takes place each April, was introduced in 1996 and is organized by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. -Wiki

In that spirit I will post a poem here each day in April.  I mean, c’mon, we can only consume so many pandemic media reports.

And here’s Day 1:

I hold a heap of insults in my arms
they are so heavy and piled
so high, I can barely see
over the top.
I don’t know how much
more
I can carry
or how much
longer
I can hold them;
the effort is all-consuming.
But I am careful to never
drop a single one,
and now I add another to the pile
I stagger under their weight.
As I go about my days
I grow bent and bitter
under my burdens.
After all these years,
and all this time,
it has never occurred to me
that I could simply put them down.