My Fault Lines
Clumsy bumbled in, inept.
Heedless tumbled when she leapt.
Presumptive trod and overstepped.
Lazy’s late. She overslept.
Ditherer will make you wait.
Pessimist is blaming fate.
Carper’s sharpened words berate.
Nervous? In another state.
Smarty-pants holds up her hand.
Loudmouth always beats the band.
Bossy barks a rough command.
Prideful thinks she’s simply grand.
Ditzy’s world is all her own.
Absent-minded lost her phone.
Nosy’s snout is overblown.
Lusty needs a chaperone.
Interrupter’s barging in.
Procrastinator won’t begin.
Martyr takes it on the chin.
Blameless hides behind her grin.
Barbara Lydecker Crane has published three chapbooks, Zero Gravitas, ALPHABETRICKS (for children), and BackWords Logic. She’s been a Poetry Prize finalist in Rattle, twice a Laureate’s Choice winner in the Maria Faust Sonnet Contest, and the Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest winner. Her poems have appeared in America, First Things, Light, Lighten Up Online, Measure, Think, and dozens of other journals and anthologies. She’s also an artist.