By: Tim Law

Confusion

I’m so damned confused
By this game we call life
Lost on the work front
So quiet with my wife

Budget is blown
Be it for wages or a loan
I’m not sure what I’m doing
A mental blank while on the phone

I just need a moment
When I can make everything stop
Press the pause button while pushing
That trolley at the shop

But everything everywhere
Is go… Go… Go…
If you’re not going fast
Then you’re going too slow

No wonder I feel like
I never fit in
My steadiest of paces
Feels like a sin

At least I still plod on
I’ve not ground to a halt
Still, every misfortune
Feels like my fault

Punching Bag

One… Two…
I did not expect that from you
I thought that you were my friend
But in the school yard, you morphed into someone new

Three… Four…
I don’t know if I can take much more
I am your verbal punching bag
See how many friendship-points you score

I’m just a country boy
I am new to this game
I wish you understood, I’m not a toy
Your words, they caused me shame

I was so damn excited
To be joining you at school
But all you did was put me down
To make yourself seem cool

Primary school are the best years
Or so it’s what THEY say
I bet that THEY never had to suffer
Your bullying each and every day

Now we are grown, and I am looking back
Reflecting upon the past
I am beginning to realize
How long the sting of those cruel words can last

Why?

Why sky, are you so high?
Why stars, do you twinkle so?
Why is the moon, why is the sun?
Why do you mock almost everyone?

Why is there so much we are yet to discover?
Why do we fight, why destroy one another?
Why do only some of us see in black and white?
Why do some love the darkness while others choose light?

Why do we question?
Why don’t we play fair?
Why are we jealous, why do we live in despair?
Why does it seem like only some of us care?

I guess this is something we will never know
Humanity’s problem that will just grow and grow
Stone hearts and stone minds, too heavy to lift
A society of hatred, impossible to shift

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Tim Law is a short story writer and poet from Southern Australia.