Navigating My Affections

As I realize what webs I have woven,

How many impulses I’ve allowed to fire at once,

I find myself reflecting on this life I live,

This many-sided story that is not at all like the movies, where plot unfolds piece by piece,

And each premise is eventually concluded, drawn to a close with an outcome

Which, whether good or bad, satisfies.

As I prepare to sleep,

Leaving my big decisions for tomorrow,

I think of the reality.

How poems are left unread, and questions left unanswered.

How this life is filled with broken stories that never get an ending,

And how I am but one woman, who must choose between one conclusion and another--

Who can travel but one path at a time.

My heart is a mutant spider with many spinnerets,

But my body and mind eventually face the reckoning--must choose which strands to sever

Or else be tangled in my own lacework.