Mea Culpa

Time and again, Life gets down to teaching me.

Different situations, multiple examples,

The lessons, more or less, the same.

Head held higher, heart swaying between 

warmth and hurt. 

Both grow in endurance and strength. 

I think to myself,
there are forces without,
that conspire to push me over the edge 

of patience. 

Maybe their idea of fun. 

Or, within my bubble of supreme confidence, 

maybe Life has nothing more to teach. 

"Smile and the world smiles with you..."

But it is only with pride that I flaunt my pain.

"Set the bird you love free..."

But the only cage is around me.

"You hurt me once, your fault. You hurt me twice, my fault." 

Between counting hurt and totalling fault, didn't I make my fort strong?!

"Do unto others as you would want others to do unto you"

I did that. Still do. The lesson I learned?

Pardon me, but that is not always true.

Chapters end. New books roll in,

alluring me with their fresh smell.

Untangling myself from the clutches of past

Hoping for better, excited for newer, I surrender myself. 

Life, stubborn life! Still keeps drilling the same.

Time and again, I fail, miserably fail,yet ignoring 

my argumentative but set responses, patiently,

Life gets down to teaching me the same.

Give up now, Life!  It is high time You learned...

Within the maze of  'mistake-learn- repeat', I have found myself, the incorrigible and stubborn me.