Smell The Coffee

Shy… timid…. brooding in the shadow of her mind

worrying about rocking the boat

-not wanting to cause upset…. feeling foolish

in a sea of eggshells…cringing at each misstep.

A red flag collected….. then ignored

A cracked shell spells a new trauma

…a new unraveling…even a small “un-picking” of the mind.

A red flag collected….. then ignored

There comes a point when an un-picked mind and an unraveled

spirit are too weak to bear the burden of a colonnade of red flags

I see her in the mirror every day

and remind her of those flag collecting days.

……lest she forgets

©Vivian Zems

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