Suppress Servile Stress Poem by John Sensele

I rue chances missed and days spent
Prevaricating whether to break the ice
Hold back, keep a low profile with my back bent
In a vow to sprinkle no more spice

In moves and grooves meant to cosset pride
Keeping up appearances to impress
Crowds that take me for a ride
Though they pretend to press for my progress

In circumstances and instances dubious on the surface
Discomforting at best
When confronted face to face
To nip off trivia whose interest

Lies in litanies of prayers
Said at altars and craters of sacrifice
In which layers of weird weirs and slayers
Rejoice in loud voice in an erosion edifice

In which they portray me as a pawn
Brushed aside, pushed aside and shunted aside
To the periphery of the mercury memory on the lantana lawn
Unkempt to vaunt vanity with a sauntering stride

When all of a sudden I snap awake
Shake my head in disbelief
Rubbing sleep off the elementary mistake
That nourished a thief and courted mischief

Multiplied several times over
In a time machine whose hands
Couldn't wind back the progress of the rambling rover
Who terrorizes the present and gathers goiter glands

In a move to exaggerate my relapse
Into subcultures that rupture progress
Made to cure neurotransmitters at the salient synapse
Where past foibles in the end suppress servile stress.