Why?

by Lee Owers-Sansome

Why do you get to me
through walls it's years to build
around the pain
of all my past mistakes?

Why do you make me care
about the fate of thankless strangers -
people so easily forgotten
I would have passed them by without a second thought?

Why do you make me try,
when effort was the last thing on my mind
along the easy path and limited rewards
I'd chosen for myself?

Why do you make me hope,
though I'm so certain wishing only sets me up
for shattered dreams
and promises too hard to keep?

Why do you make me love
if love brings only misery and loss;
a brilliant hour pursued
by its inevitable end?

Why do you push me?
Why do I give in?

Why do you get to me?

Lee Owers-Sansome
7/14/96

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