Excluding Everything Else [r] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

I want only one thing: feel-good emotions -
and to find these I have to think good-feeling
thoughts: after taking drugs prescribed by the
ignorant and suffering withdrawal depression,
it is very difficult to think feel-good thoughts:

that a local pastor is ordering illness to leave a
woman and she is healthy today, that the air-
con is working and we have improved work
circumstances, that my colleagues are kind &
mean well, that my twin sis's happily married

and she's having a good time, that Nici found a
job to her taste, that Tiaan is enjoying his studies
and life and found a girlfriend he loves, that I can
walk 7 blocks to be picked up after work - thus
combining exercise and efficiency, that my

Spanish translation is nearly finished and should
be polished in a last round, that my 85-year old
mother is enjoying playing the piano at concerts,
that my husband is healthy and strong, that my
eldest daughter trusts the dedicated pastor who

understands her complaints, that my new sister-
in-law is clever and kind and handled eight kids
with aplomb, that we visited the Cape and
returned without accident - I'm counting
blessings - all I need is a positive focal

point to focus on to the exclusion of
everything else…