I've created my own prison

It's been a while since we shared a poem. What's that? Too soon? Oh, relax. This one speaks to one of my recurrent themes. You know the one: trapped in a prison of my own design. Yeah, that one that I'm always yammering about. Part of my own private prison has a closet, but that's not the part this poem addresses. It's the part where we can be trapped by our comfort, both our possessions and also the familiarity and ease of just doing the same things we've always done. Anyway, it's by Theodore Roethke. Hope you likey.

The Reckoning

All profits disappear: the gain
Of ease, the hoarded, secret sum;
And now grim digits of old pain
Return to litter up our home.

We hunt the cause of ruin, add,
Subtract, and put ourselves in pawn;
For all our scratching on the pad,
We cannot trace the error down.

What we are seeking is a fare
One way, a chance to be secure:
The lack that keeps us what we are,
The penny that usurps the poor.

For those of you not down with the verse, I have something else. It feels kind of cruel to make a stand-alone post about it, so I'll append it here. Remember a few weeks back when my Andy was the MEAT? A few of us were discussing his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and her preternatural preservation, as depicted in a Details magazine photo. Well, yesterday A. Coop was on Oprah plugging his book (dirty?) and who should show up along with but Momma Gloria V. I'll just say it. Her face is WRECKED, yo. They can do tricks with photographs, but videotape don't lie. OK, videotape is harsh, but this woman's face looks like a leering skull, only with puckers. Seriously, her skin is stretched so tight that she has these pleats next to her nose. And her face does not move. Only her eyes. It's like she's one of those paintings in a haunted house. And don't get me started on her teeth. She seemed really sweet, if that counts for anything. Oh, and Xiaoxia, if you're around here, Anderson described one of his early floppy coiffures as "Flock of Seagulls hair." It's time to face the music, darlin'.