A Letter to Regret

Dear regret,

You are the keeper of every

Disappointment in my life,

Of all the times I wish that I

Had stopped to think first and

Carpe Diem wasn’t my motto.

You fill my day with echoes

Of my many missteps and mistakes.

You keep me sitting up at night,

Wondering what I could have done.

You leave my brain on repeat.

Oh, if only! Your insidious whisper

Slithers through my thoughts,

Poisoning any happy moment

With previous foolishness. You

Keep me immobile, frozen in fear.

Past memories haunt me;

Events I cannot hope to change.

Now I finish arguments with the air--

I should have said this, or that!--

You let me win; I am never wrong.

If I’m lucky, I’ll make most mistakes

While I’m young and headstrong,

And the rest of my life will simply

Fall into place. Eventually, my

Fear will have no power over me.

You have no place here. You only

Corrupt the most beautiful dreams.

You make me wary, when I should

Be ready to take on whatever comes.

Mistakes are how I learn, after all.

With one foot planted  in the past,

I can never step forward.