Pine Needles

no matter how hard
I am smacked

in the face
with the
trials and tribulations
of everyday living

the sting of sad news
never loses its bite

a long time ago I remember
thinking there are no

insurance policies to shield
me from emotional pain

and there could never be
enough cotton to soften
the roughest of roads

what I did not realize -

is the older I got,
I would find
a way

to manage the hurts
in life -

to separate the good
from the bad memories

and when to savor the feeling
of walking on soft ground

I learned to
appreciate this irony:

even the sharpest pine needles

eventually fall to create
a delicate bed

beneath my feet