Envy

Poem, 16 March 2019.

Strange how that green shadow
Chases you through life
Hovering just above your shoulder,
Waiting to peck at and whittle down
Your plans and executions
Your thoughts and passions

At times a deafening silence
At times an ignoring and brushing away
And when that fails to absorb the insecurities,
Set the gossip mills a-churning
And bring out those boxing gloves
To diminish and make ignoble the character

It pursues you relentlessly
From age five to age seventy-five
In the home and in the playground
In the community and in the workplace
People comparing and feeling unhinged
Reaching out and pulling down

What pray is the point of any activity or realisation,
When accompanied by that constant bitter shadow?
The taller you rise, the worse it gets
Emergent trees forever facing the elements
Does the tree hunker down and stop living?
Stop reaching towards the sunlight
And the kiss of the passing clouds?