Grindstone

video: Grindstone
video of Anna M. Evans's poem, Grindstone

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Grindstone

You think that something’s going to change your life,
but all it does is change the thing you want,
a want that sharpens like a carving knife.

Let’s say the girl agrees to be your wife—
you waltz her down the aisle toward the font
and think that something’s going to change your life.

But in a few years time, if you survive
that long, you’ll be struck—headlong or aslant—
by want that sharpens like a carving knife

for someone who could never be your wife.
You struggle to resist the urge to hunt
yet still think something’s got to change. Your life

is dull as stone. Eventually you give
the girl a call, come out with it upfront:
you want her. Sharpening like a carving knife,

the forces mass that you will use to cleave
yourself from your old life. But, Stupid, don’t
imagine THIS is going to change your life.
The want just sharpens like a carving knife.