Cold Comfort Poem by Jeannette Heywood

You brought yourself to this.
Perhaps by some subconscious force.
Maybe not the destiny you imagined.
But your narcissistic drive won.
Propelling you thus to this state.
This darker, starker existence.

You dwelt in the bosom of love.
That warm, soft cocoon.
Light shone through all bleakness.
You were cosseted, nurtured.
Favoured it seemed by all around.
Your twilight years assured.

Alas, as even Eden witnessed.
Envy rampant as ivy entangles your soul.
Dissonance seeps into your veins.
Are others happier than you?
Do their relationships seem stronger?
Surely you should be the centre.

Vying for your pivotal role,
you provoke and falsify, incite divisions.
Create cracks in the core of kinships.
Beware! All will not succumb to your lies.
Left with hangers-on, your dominion reduced,
you must seek succour from such cold comfort.