The Not Enough Blues

    It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.
    The Carter Family, Worried Man Blues, 1930

It’s a lie you don’t have to worry:
pricks of uncertainty, dread
hurtling in the batting cage
bouncing in your head.

Sweat and sweat, it’s not enough,
don’t matter if you’re strong or tough.

Swinging on the pendulum,
gripping tight and powerless
hanging on with wish and fear –
despair at lack of righteousness.

Sweat and sweat, it’s not enough,
don’t matter if you’re strong or tough.

Grating rasp, hum thrum of clanking,
justice bend stuck in reverse,
pedals jammed and wheels unbalanced,
shimmying wildly toward the worse.

Sweat and sweat, it’s not enough,
don’t matter if you’re strong or tough.

Moral arc turned dark-night swamp,
black cat lurking, smoke and ash,
ataraxia betwixt-between,
mumpsimuses drunk on sour mash.

Sweat and sweat, it’s not enough,
don’t matter if you’re strong or tough.

Brambles, bitrex, barriers, and bricks
crush pollen grains of hope to dust,
assurance teeters on the edge –
make a difference, now we must.

Sweat and sweat, it’s not enough,
don’t matter if you’re strong or tough.