Shipping Out
I’ve looked out
for your interests
for so long.
Now it’s time
that I’m not the someone who
speaks to you about
those too-tight
slacks. Fixes the mess
you made of
your hair. Warns
about late hours and false friends.
Tops up bank accounts.
Counsels you
about work. Straightens
your scruffy
apartment.
Pays your cell phone bill. Repairs
your cracked-up car or
listens to
your bad date stories.
No longer
will I smooth
the simple unfairnesses
the casual cruelties
life presses
on you. I’ve taught you
all I know.
It is time.
Now. Do like the rest of us.
Get real. Suck it up.
shadorma chain
9/11/19
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I love the way the staccato rhythm and short lines of this poem reinforce the frankness of the message. There definitely comes a point in some relationships where the tough love approach is necessary and the needier person needs to just sink or swim on their own.
Yes, and the impatience that results, not only with the other person but maybe with yourself for putting up with things for so long.
I DO like so much of your poetry Claudia…..and your energy and zest for life is a delight! I am trying to see how you wriye so much more concisely and evocatively about small observations than I can manage!
Thank you. I tend to be wordy so I do a lot of paring! In conversation I think I run on and on but in writing I can get to the point so much more easily.