I Need New Themes

I Need New Themes

to write, to shape up a portfolio.
Yesterday, even memories

failed to put forward an account,
& coercing fiction upon something

as real as death in the family
echoed betrayal. I had once read

in one of those poet-should-bes
that poets never cheat. So, I need

new themes to be honest, to write
my Statement of Purpose honestly,

to put together a fifteen-pager
for a possible MFA application.

I need to look inward, bring out
the skull over which time

has etched comfort, need to take
risks for others' dangers, humanize

politics, find middle-grounds
for empathy. But, above all,

I need to stop looking at the mirror,
at profile pictures on Facebook,

at lives of people connected
with mine.