A woeful person often serves as a sympathy repellant, the exact opposit of what they want


Woe is me

I can't, it won't they don't
nobody, nothing, never,
The negatives in my life
think they are so clever.

They crawl into my mind
and bore into my spirit
so that when a "yes" I find
I don't embrace, but fear it.

Anything that looks uplifting
anything that shines a light
I see as hidden heartache
to be revealed in the night

So even when unbothered
though the enemy's gone
I act as one unfathered
merely product, merely spawn

So I sing my song of woe
victim is my name
and wherever I go
my story is the same

Don't tell me there is hope
I don't care to hear that news
Don't show me how to cope
I'd rather sing the blues

I've been taken many times
by the Sunshine Band of rainbows
and their smiley faces rhymes
of flowers, hearts and halos

Just let me be myself
in misery, where I'm excused
for things I say and do
no matter who I bruise

Life's been mean to me
I've had so much heartache
You just wouldn't believe
the hurt I've had to take

No one understands
no one ever could
and so I carry my sorrow
alone, misunderstood

You think you have the answer
forgive and get on with life
I've tried to be a good person
but that hurt still cuts like a knife

I do for others often
I give as much as I can
I ask no one to thank me
but that they try to understand

I remember what I did
for that one and the other
I was good to my sister
I helped out my brother

I took in the ones
that others turned away
I tried to give them kindness
they won't give me the time of day

They were here last week
but for just a little while
I told them how they hurt me
I pulled their "favor" file

I wanted them to see
how little love they showed me
though I hadn't helped them out
with any thoughts they would owe me

I help out of love
it is my only reason
I just thought it would return
in my needy season

When the others came around
I told how I'd been shunned
in all of my misfortune
after all good deeds I'd done

I asked why it should be
that after all my strife
no one seemed to want
to be part of my life

Put to one side
I sit alone each day
and think about my self
and the price I've had to pay

I've had to pay for loving
my family and friends
I've had to pay for caring
for neighbor and for kin

So alone I will sit
accepting my fate
though a victim, I won't quit
its a very familiar state













Poetry by Phyllis J. Rhodes
Read 651 times
Written on 2010-04-13 at 06:49

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Phyllis J. Rhodes
I tried to show how negativism, whether justified or not, can progress to self absorbtion, blinding us from anything positive, then to bitterness and then to false martyrdom where we become comfortable and even attached to our misery. A true martyr is silent about their sacrifice and never self promoting.
2010-04-13


NicholasG
I guess it comes down to not being able to have our cake and eat it too!! The trick is to share the darn thing. If those who you share with don't return the favour, it's kind of sad for them, for when their time comes to be alone, as happens to us all, they will not have the tools to build happiness. Ungratefulness grows quickly into dissatisfaction.
....there goes my quota of big words for the day! ;-)
Nick
2010-04-13


Stan Cooper The PoetBay support member heart!
Phyliss...I've met many self proclaimed martyrs like those you
describe in your very interesting poem...

I particularly liked the first stanza as it so well set the tone for the whole poem

xxxStan
2010-04-13