Empathy Pangs

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Empathy Pangs

You’re not even my daughter

Yet I can hear those noxious thoughts

Bashing about in your brain

My head pounds in unison

Like the eternal drum

Of mother earth

Worry overcomes me

I have absorbed

Your pain into each pore

Of my body

Up until the wee hours

Scouring each inch

Of my fifty two year history

In search of a quick

Effective solution

There is none

You are near the cliff

Of my old life

The uncertainty

Rooms thick

with toxic air

of distrust

Immobilized

from your old life

A ruse of yourself

If there were an inkling

Would you have plunged?

Would you have continued

to sabotage impeccable virtue

And success to sustain another?

It’s done, but what will you do?

If I could help you

Not sure that I would

Knowing what I know now

Feeding the monster

Of codependence

Was my old vice

I’m done with that

I no longer stand as sturdy

Able to hold up another

With a wobbly knee
and dire need for peace

It’s me who needs a steady arm

Should I retire the tranquility

of avoiding strife

You'd be first in line to be rescued

Unfortunately you are alone

With this

Just you ….. god

And your therapist