The Albany Poetry Workshop
Forum I: Poem for the End of the Century
Maggie Morley
At the End of the Century
It's been a not-much life;
Most everything half finished or spoiled,
Friendships discarded, family fragmented,
Lovers like clinkers gone cold.
It's been a life spent blaming Mom
For what I have become;
Blaming Dad for marrying Mom;
Blaming everyone for my shortcomings.
What sustains me as I sit in my mess,
Is the possibility that deep inside
There glimmers a worm of grace—
A small green flash at sunset
That promises a not-much redemption,
The dim possibility that I might
Forgive myself, might set myself free
To live the life I want to have,
And implying perhaps
That I might be wonderful inside,
That I might have done something wonderful,
In my lumpish progress toward my not-much death.
November, 1996
Copyright © by Maggie Morley