Better Care

11 March 2026

https://poems.culturing.net/2026/03/11/better-care/

Have I spoken too harshly? I must be true
to my own development (that is what these pages are for).
But the muse from whom I departed, the vulnerable narcissist,
puffed up with self-love, is a shadow, and not the full picture.
She knows there is more to her than that. And yet,
this shadow demanded rebuke, and she had not
the strength to rebuke it herself. I do hope
that I sliced with precision, but this
was a mere demonstration. The rest of the operation
is in her hands, and they are such good hands
that I hope against hope for success.

Can I really claim to have been in control?
Yes and no. It was not the control of a scientist
working with sterilized test tubes and frictionless inclined planes,
or that of a sage, high up on a mountain, unaffected,
but rather the command of a seaworthy captain, who has seen enough storms
to ride through one without losing the ship. I digested
her chaos, simply to prove it possible, that storms
can be weathered, that they need not always destroy.
She deserves to be happy, if only she can find
the strength that is lacking, perhaps through better care
of her body, perhaps through better care of her soul.

But I did destroy, didn't I? Only the shadow, I hope,
not the ego, unless the ego was so tightly bound to shadow
that it had to be sacrificed. Still, every ego is phoenix,
and it may revive in a new formulation, a healthier one,
one that sees that her shadow is one among many, and not
the whole story. Her story remains unwritten.