Burning Bridges
By David Summerfield

 

Unless I extract from life something soon
That’s not just pain sacrifice and surrender
But some return on investment for what’s owed
From demanding work careful and assiduous
Nothing can be the same going forward
As it was in the past

 

Doing the same thing expecting a different result
Dead to myself feeling nothing but sick
Of being sick It’s time to change
Be different than what I’ve been
Time to adjust get something more
Than what I’ve been getting

 

And to block retreat from these tenets
These terms of my recovery
To turn from pain sacrifice and surrender
To a cheerful contentment as what’s owed
Are the flames set ablaze that roar now behind me
From my old bonds and burning bridges

.

 

Certainty

 

.On the side of the road in the sun and dirt I’ll embrace my fate
As an oak stands outside pomposity and confusion
Things having been learned particles of a life lived are
Sometimes nothing is better than something
Leverage is power used to stand strong and well-armed
To remain neutral in every circumstance to desire only personal destiny
As one would his naked lover
To react not assert let it be
To relent tirelessly chasing to become quiet and
When self-importance exceeds worth to appreciate setbacks
To cease wandering tortured by haste carelessly seeking and yearning
To stop and ascend toward spirituality
To avoid scattering one’s energies
Across an endless and pointless horizon

 

David Summerfield from US has his fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and photo in numerous publications. He is an editor, columnist, and contributor to various publications within his home state of West Virginia. He is a graduate of Frostburg State University, Maryland, and a veteran of the Iraq war.