
Washed up on the sandy shore, I am the debris
of all the bad decisions made with certainty;
it seems I’m not done, up ahead, the paths to choose;
so many losses to come, so much more to lose.
For every adventure approached at full throttle,
all ended the same, clutching an empty bottle;
last night’s enlightenment sought to confuse;
so many losses to come, so much more to lose.
In pursuit of fun, all the wasted time I spent
losing myself in dreams and repeated lament;
here I go again, sober and set to abuse;
so many losses to come, so much more to lose.
A 12-syllable Complaint shared with dVerse and No Theme Thursday picture prompt. The refrain was inspired and paraphrased from this post at Tiny Hearts, though I’m not sure exactly who originally penned it.

This one hits hard. Makes one take pause and think about some less than stellar decisions we’ve made for sure.
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We live and, hopefully, we learn!
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Hopefully, indeed 🤞
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Your complaint resonates with me, Sean; I know what it’s like to feel like debris ‘washed up on the sandy shore’, and bad decisions haunt me in the early hours most days. However, I hope it’s not just ‘many losses to come, so much more to lose’.
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Those days are past me now. I’m glad I survived and glad for everyone else who made through too.
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Shaun, the repetition of that refrain adds a heavy, almost inevitable weight to your piece! 👏
Much love,
David
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It certainly feels inevitable when going through times like those.
Thanks David 🙏
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I think we are our own worst judges… the bad decisions coming back to haunt us.
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And too stubborn to listen to good advice sometimes. I guess we have to learn from our own mistakes.
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Haunting jeremiad, Shaun. What in hindsight we see, if only in foresight we had known. The refrain acutely captures the fear that we haven’t learned our lessons well.
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It can be a long way to the bottom. Thankfully I could pull myself up before arriving there.
It was very serendipitous that the refrain appeared in the Tiny Hearts post whilst that specific picture at No Theme Thursday seemed to be talking to me and then dVerse asking to use this form.
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Such a sad cycle of bad decisions and empty bottle, leads us to nowhere. So much more to lose here. Thanks for joining in. Have a good weekend.
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Thanks Grace 🙏
It is sad when we don’t realise that we have better choices available.
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good on you!
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Haha – which part!?
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the entirety of it– but especially the part where you gave up the bottle. congrats on your sobriety (if i’m assuming correctly that this was about you). 🙂
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It is somewhat about me but I was never as bad as the poem paints. Still, these days I would enjoy drinking often if the hangovers weren’t so long, brutal and painful! So I just don’t bother so much with it.
Thanks for reading and commenting 🙏
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A bravely personal lament Shaun…
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Thank you 🙏
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That was a heavy poem but fantastically written, Shaun!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
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Thanks so much, Yvette 🙏
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A potent confessional poem Shaun, heavy, yet true enough for anyone, I suspect we share those regrets.
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Better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t.
Thanks Paul 🙏
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Yes, much agreed 🙂
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Washed up on the sandy shore, I am the debrisof all the bad decisions made with certainty;it seems I’m not done, up ahead, the paths to choose;so many losses to come, so much more to lose
What a start…and the rest as crackin’ good…..really superb stuff …
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Thanks Ain 🙏
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