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I was engaging in some mostly useless thought a while back, mostly about a girl I was once involved with. It’s a familiar story to most jilted lovers, I suppose: dwelling on how the person who dumped you has moved on to someone even less worthy than you were.

I label these thoughts “mostly useless” because we tend to skew assessments of our own comparative worth. Either we think too much, or too little, of ourselves in relation to other people with whom we see ourselves competing. We rarely see the situation as it is.

Which isn’t to say I think I was wrong in the situation referenced by the haiku — just that it’s marginally possible I could have been ;)

(Incidentally, this is the handwritten version of my most recent haikubreakup submission)

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Today marks the eighth anniversary of the largest scale terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil. Every year I feel compelled, as many people do, to commemorate the huge loss suffered that day. But today, some of those memories, along with more recent events, have my mind running on a different track.

Many remember the apparent sense of political unity that existed in the days following the attacks. Many saw the absence of political strife as a sign that we were all pulling together. And in many ways, that’s exactly what we were doing. Many of us hoped against hope for a permanently kinder, more unified America. Unfortunately, like so many alliances forged in times of desperation, it quickly evaporated like the mirage it was.
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*

today I felt the need,
the need to move away;
this place is much too close
and reeks of yesterday.

you say I should prefer
to outlast, to endure
– not clamor to escape
the demons at the door;

but it’s not the same as running –
there’s a diff’rence between flight
and the things you have to do
to get back to the light.

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