Lost Identity (after Paul Blackburn)

We get windfalls of strength
that prove to be more
                             valuable
than money and fame.

Time spent choosing braided ropes
of morality and conviction,
                                the core
that holds a personality erect

wears thinner with age,
morphs into a larger
                                meaning
loved ones rarely understand.

Pride is on the line and vulnerable,
so thin and trepidacious-ly
                                 walked
that we don’t know how it will ever recover.


Aleathia Drehmer 2009

Published by Counterexample Poetics 12/09