My Mother Worries

My mother worries
about everything
and takes full responsibility
for almost anything
that has ever gone wrong.

The Holocaust had
nothing to do with her
but had she been in the vicinity
she’d be apologizing still.

And maybe because
of her intense need to take
full frontal blame, I shrug off
most things indifferently with
a careless c’est la vie leading
people to believe I’m a
lackadaisical carefree soul.

My pseudo-laid back
manner usually is a result
of too much to think about.
It’s not that I’m not concerned -
there’s just too many things
to worry about to focus
much on any one thing.