Julie Ellinger Hunt’s most recent poem to appear here was “In the Midst” (March 2014) 

Threading the Needle
By Julie Ellinger Hunt

It is often assumed
that the challenge in itself
is enough to forfeit a position.
To achieve and obtain
the center of something
so finite like the eye,
or the once black heart
we obsess to fix.
We do not assume that the
challenge is too great,
we simply try over again
never accepting the outcome
until the outcome is what we expect,
whether rational or not—
like the gardener always weeding,
dead-heading, watering,
never accepting the natural state
of
Chaos
or
Overgrowth
We keep at it, attempting to thread the needle, change the inevitable outcome until we are greyed,
wrinkled,
exhausted
And right back where we began.