Regret$0By Char Barnes$0$0I regretted the decision for days at a time,$0Wishing I had done something$0That would have changed her mind.$0It was obvious that she was unhappy,$0And even though the choice was hers,$0I wonder if I could have stopped her.$0Or was her life all just a blur?$0I question what would cause someone$0To want to take their life,$0To end it right then and there,$0Without putting up a fight.$0I try to put myself in her position at the time,$0And wonder what she was thinking,$0What was going through her mind?$0Someone please assure me $0That I had done all that I could.$0Assure me there was nothing I could$0Have done that would have $0Changed the way she was.$0I think of her every day,$0Missing her to death,$0Convincing myself she is all right now,$0And that this was all just a test.$0$0$0The Oyster$0By Char Barnes$0$0$0$0There once was an oyster,$0Whose story I tell,$0Who found that some sand$0Had got into his shell.$0It was only a grain,$0But it gave him great pain,$0For oysters have feelings,$0Although they’re so plain.$0Now, did he berate$0The harsh workings of fate$0That had brought him $0To such a deplorable state?$0Did he curse at the government,$0Cry for election,$0And claim that the sea should$0Have given him protection?$0No- he said to himself$0As he lay on a shell,$0Since I cannot remove it,$0I shall try to improve it.$0Now the years have rolled around,$0As the years always do,$0And the oyster came to his ultimate destiny-$0Stew.$0And the small grain of sand,$0That had bothered him so,$0Was a beautiful pearl$0All richly aglow.$0Now the tale has a moral;$0For isn’t it grand$0What an oyster can do $0With a morsel of sand?$0What couldn’t we do$0If we’d only begin$0With some of the things$0That get under our skin.$0$0$0$0$0Reflection$0By Robin Rutter$0$0$0$0I’m staring at an iron cage,$0What I see is nothing more.$0But on the other side, I wish to see,$0Your bright eyes looking at me.$0A silver key around your neck,$0Bound to save me from this cell.$0I cannot repeat what has been done,$0You draw closer as I draw back.$0Your features so familiar,$0I keep drawing back until you$0Are near the cage.$0I sadly remember your face now.$0I glance at the key around my neck,$0And then at yours.$0I begin to slowly remember the mirror,$0That was placed in front of the cage.$0Bound forever in this iron domain,$0Always seeing myself looking back at me.$0