Expectations —

from you, from them and me,

almost always in concert

but never in harmony.

 

Impressionable eyes may be watching —

always must stay strong, true, and blue —

for if I falter,

the world of another

may falter, too.

 

Patterns of happiness,

a model of true giving and compromise,

have meant years of

careful planning and coping —

now I have thoughts of importance,

and was it all so wise?

 

Thoughts of independence —

all for none and none for all —

surely have crossed my mind

more times than one,

but recorded reminders

of who I am and what I am

slowly surface as surely

as the morning sun.

 

Expectations —

powerful enough to arrange lives

to determine sanity —

somehow seem less important,

don’t you see —

perhaps I now realize that expectations

are not requests from others,

only unreasonable demands

from me.

​

-Refel Rushing-