Too Many Hats

How can just one soul,

one mind,

one person,

contain such a multitude of faces,

such a myriad of needs?

Swirling all around me,

overloading perceptionary feeds,

I fall apart a moment

on the knees of a weary soul

to gather up a listing

of all the parts that are me, whole.

I am woman,

I am child,

I am wife,

and mother, too.

Failed daughter,

favored niece

to the one who saw me through.

I am artist,

I am student,

in college and

at work.

How many hats to carry

when there's not one

that I can shirk.

I am body,

I am mind,

heart and spirit

in one form bound,

all demanding answers

not easy to be found.

There's passion

and there's sorrow;

pain and gladness, kin

madness and sanity,

righteousness

and sin.

Intellect,

emotion

conscience and id;

athlete and activist

all for my time do bid!

Role of lover

Role of friend,

Guide to those I must support.

How many more to add on to this wearisome report?

Dreamer and realist

healing from the past;

can't let what is behind me

become my psyche's cast.

Did I forget to mention

how I once loved to explore?

Reduced to wading through dirty clothes

of the ones that I adore...

So many tasks to tend to

but which ten should I place first?

It's not a play, there is no script

this scene is not rehearsed!

I've just one choice on how to use

each moment of the day.

How am I

supposed to choose

from all those voices I give sway?

The inventory lengthens

and I hope the end may be at hand.

Then I hear a simple word

to which my ear attends.

Me.

It's all I'll ever be

when my days are at an end.

I stop and give that moment

a considerable pause,

and realize quite suddenly

my faulty logic's flaws...

When all my hats are taken

from my hand on that last day,

what will remain of me?

"Not much" I have to say!

When I am gone, there'll be naught left

but the hats I leave behind

What I make them now's my legacy;

to the details I must mind.

So I guess I'd best be busy

and return to juggling these hats

I'm realize now the beauty

in these prologues to my past.

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Kathleen

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