(Written for my friend Jane, whose seizure disorder prevents her from driving a car, but not from being an observant and caring human.)
Petit Mal by Jinny Batterson
Some people have extravagant crises
That spill over the headlines and reverberate
For weeks on radio talk shows.
Pollsters check our reactions;
The stock market holds its breath.
Most of us have less visible, less public problems,
Rarely reaching beyond families or close friends.
The media are oblivious.
Just a vast crush of mundane little episodes.
Only our own lives and livelihoods are hurt.
Yet the sheer volume wears and wears,
Poking holes in the cosmos
As surely as the stars.
Jinny's Occasional Poems 