Tolerance

 Tolerance

The thing about life is

You really only have to tolerate

Yourself

That’s what really matters

Just putting up with your own bullshit

Sure we indulge

In giving bad advice

Advice we couldn’t take ourselves 

But dish out like we have some 

Control over how others deal with their

Problems

We also indulge in rhetoric to 

Just hear our own voices

We sit upon endless piles of the stuff

Just waiting for the moment

To ladle it out 

Onto the plate of some benign conversation

But then

We find silence

The art

It needs to be created

On who’s dime

My own

And the goal

Is always to 

Leave something that will endure

Long after I’m gone

Create some foothold

Some memory

Some story someone will

Recall

In some conversation 

Some pause 

Some moment

That reminds them

Of what I’ve created

On someone’s dime

My own.