Poetry

 

I need patience today, so I Google it

to find patience comes from patientia,
meaning sufferance, submissiveness,
passiveness, enduring—all of this
without complaining.

Patience, an old-fashioned name
the Puritans borrow from the Bible
and give to women, along with Faith,
Hope, and Charity, who wear
unadorned clothing and persevere.

Patience, a word that annoys
children because they feel the “no”
in it. When I hear it, I see empty
tracks stretching into the distance
to disappear at the horizon.

I look further, to The Devil’s
Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, 1911.
Patience, a minor form of despair,
disguised as a virtue. I can live
with that.

 

^{Photo by Matthias Tillen on Unsplash}