Andrea Varga’s most recent poem to appear here was “Arboretum Nights” (March 2018). 

Distraction
By Andrea Varga

Distraction . . . you blessed activity for those of us
that have their minds boggled up with one thing,
for those that obsess, perseverate, wonder
on one thing, always the same thing.
Going around constantly in circles
and then in other circles
desperately hoping to find a solution
but only seeing one way out
and that one way is not so bright.

It is good to find a person outside your mind
uninvolved with your thoughts
giving you options, other solutions
to the ONE that you are focusing on;
shining a bright light on possibilities; not one,
but two, three, five or more . . .

Can I myself be that person?
I give permission to my mind
to escape its prison of obsession
to shake off the circles of perseveration
and I am sitting on my sofa staring at the wall.
Not thinking. The thoughts are coming.
I don’t choose them. They pick me.
First one. That first one jumps onto another
and the other skips onto an even further one.

They drag me with them. I am distracted.
By no particular thing but just by
staring at the wall. Letting my mind run
wherever it wants.

Distraction . . . When the mind makes no effort,
that is when it comes: the idea; the next one;
then even a better one.
I am distracted. And the circle closes
and the distraction
culminates in the ultimate solution.

The answer that was buried by the weighty boulder
of my obsession on the subject,
the constant focus, the perseveration.
Distraction: YOU FREED ME