I Am Swimming Away (Revised) Poem by Margaret Alice Second

She lives in her own bubble - doing what she
deems best for her budding business - trying
to ignore things irking her into impatience -
yet resentment makes her ugly in expressions
of bitterness - invariably the cause is mother's
blithely yap-yap-yap way of talking

While everybody else just wants to get on with
their lives, drinking morning coffee in silence,
planning the day, ordering the workshop and
helping clients, while she has to face the one
who controls her with a hand of steel and she
has lost the will or ability to be friendly, to

Treat others with respect, no self-control left,
no good manners or etiquette, plain straight-
forward accusations and irrational actions to
put the blame on others - everybody else is
guilty except herself, she used this kind of
assistance once - now she pays eternally for

The privilege - a situation so negative in its
extreme I don't want to get caught in it, this
driving me about since I cannot drive myself,
this getting me involved so I can take over
from her - isn't working, I do not agree with
anything, there's nothing honest or

Real, nothing true or eternal in this - the
story changes to suit the protagonists and to
draw me in - but I am swimming away…