Stuck / Torn

by Annie Stenzel

Stuck / Torn
     All change is for the worse.   — Anon.

Because the rut has earned
its fame for comfort, being now furnished
with every contemporary necessity
because the fabric is tight–woven like the clean sheets that flap brightly on the clothesline
because the tangled contents
of each kitchen drawer bespeak the lumbering years
of meals prepared in tandem
because the yoke we wore as guardians
of first, toddler, then, child, now, adolescent,
binds us still in furrows across the same field
because the drug of hope seduces and deceives with its diverting promises
because a cactus waits with patience for the few but necessary drops the rainy season will provide —
waits, parched in almost every cell
and won’t be budged
no matter what the weather