Merry-Go-Round

She had concluded
That she wasn’t any good at
Maintaining a relationship with men.
After three failed marriages,
She had ample evidence
To support that claim.
She had all but given up
On ever being able to have
A relationship that lasted.
Men just couldn’t be trusted
Or else she had
Exceptionally poor taste
In the men she chose.
Either way,
With all her experience,
She still didn’t have a clue
About how to make a man stay
Or how to keep him happy.
She had tried everything
That she could think of,
But nothing seemed to work.
She could never understand
How men thought.
It was as if men and women
Spoke entirely different languages.
Just when she thought
She was getting her ideas across,
Something would invariably happen
That would convince her
That the guy hadn’t understood
A single word she said.
She wasn’t the only one either.
Most of her girl friends
Had come to the same conclusion.
After each relationship
She would solemnly vow
Never to do that again,
But never, never lasted too long.
She knew how to get a guy.
That wasn’t her problem.
She just couldn’t figure out
What to do with them
Once she had them.
Her life was a viscous circle
And she had no idea
Why it occurred that way
Or how to get off
The merry-go-round
That she had been riding.
Her life was just something
That seemed to happen to her
Over and over again
And she was
The innocent victim of it all,
At least in her mind.
She wallowed for ages
In the mire of self-pity,
Powerless to have it be
Any other way than
The way it seemed.
Commiserating with her friends
Didn’t help either.
Few of them had any better luck
Than she did.
It wasn’t until she accepted
Responsibility
For the life she lived,
That she had a chance
Of deviating from
That cycle of misfortune.