Delete, Delete

By Anne Whitehouse
I log on to email every day.
My inbox is full of offers, appeals,
advice, updates, reminders
I go through the list, reading
and deleting, or deleting
without reading.
My brain has reached capacity
and is starting to shrink.
I try to delete more than I add
to the heavy baggage of self.
Delete the urge to suffer
that twisted me in knots,
delete the need to be right,
to have the last word,
to have my own way.
Knowing I cannot choose
the way my life will end.

Anne Whitehouse is the author of three collections of poetry: The Surveyor's Hand, Blessings and Curses, and Bear in Mind, and a novel, Fall Love. Her poetry, short stories, essays, reviews, and articles have been widely published. She is a graduate of Harvard and Columbia. Please visit her website, www.annewhitehouse.com.