In This Skin

I dread to wonder who I’d be today

If wildly divergent paths and choices

Instead I’d taken along life’s highway,

Or followed foolish words, advice, voices.

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Would my skin be a comfortable fit

If I had stayed stuck in my small hometown

Bullied at a dismal job I hated

Bereft of smiles — sinking — about to drown?

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Or would I be downtrodden and depressed

Snappy and snarly, sour as a grapefruit?

Without friends and family, I’d be bereft!

They’re stalwart and true, my life’s parachute.

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Inconceivable! Adrift, alone through life…

How blest my days have been, spared such a plight.

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Written for The Sonnet of Shadows Challenge.