Thinking that I’m so smart
(however justified the evidence appears)
has never gained me anything but pain

Please let me never
do that again –
I’m so sorry
for the stupidity it led me to,
blind as a slab, such broad miscalculations
in the shadow of my ego

Let me rather
attend to the brightness
of everyone else. Let my brilliance be comprised
of seeing them aright
and thus supporting
the dawn of shared enlightenment,
with each of us
contributing our own essential rays.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 11, 2022