I used to write poetry

WoW. That is my excuse. I was bitten by the MMORPG bug again. I blame web-comics, well at least the advertisements on the web-comics. For what it’s worth the Lord of the Rings Online game is rather fun, the open beta wasn’t fun enough to make me buy the game, but it was fun enough to make me try the 10-day free trial to World of Warcraft. I suspect that wasn't the reaction the creators were going for. To be fair I should disclose I had no intention of buying the Lord of the Rings game when I started the open beta test. Of course I had no intention of buying WoW when I started the 10-day free trial, but that resolve only lasted 48-hours.

Anyway I’ve been thinking about different things I could try to get me on a slightly more regular update schedule, and for a brief period of time I pondered bad poetry. I even composed a few WoW related haiku, but ultimately I decided to spare everyone that particular pain. Fate it would seem had a different idea.

One of my old high school English teachers cleaned out her classroom at the end of this last school year and she found a poem I wrote back in the day. Since my mother happens to be a teacher at said school, and since I'm home visiting my parents as I type this, I guess you do get subjected to my poetry after all. I’m thinking I was a sophomore when I wrote this:

She was sitting on a bench in the mall
I see her here each day,
My aunt told me.
She sat there and stared blankly off,
She sat there tired and old.
She sat there weary of life and its troubles.


I wondered why she wore tattered rags,
I wondered if she thought of a lost love.
Did she dream of an opportunity lost,
Or does she dwell on good times once had?
Is she a victim of life or herself?
I wondered if she thought of the cruel ways of life.


Or is it possible, now that I think back,
Could it be she had no regrets?
She only comes to sit and think of life well-lived.
Could the weary look be just a memory?
One that is tainted by guilt?
Guilt from me feeling pity but doing nothing.

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