My writing project has fallen on hard times.

I’d kept up to date.
doing amazing quantitative work
until two days ago,
when scheduling and laziness came together
to bottom me out,
leaving me in the position to catch up ever since.

Today, I woke up needing to write forty two poems
to regain control of my schedule.
An impossible task.
My day isn’t helping either.

Jury duty’s trying to put me on a case,
and I’d love to explain,
“Judge, I would be happy to find this criminal
and/or civil defendant guilty or liable today,
but I have an entirely voluntary poetry quota to meet
(the quality of what I write is not important;
just so long as I write the number of poems, it’s all right)!”

I doubt the theoretical judge would be sympathetic.

Though I won’t catch up, I’m working at a healthy clip,
and I’ve scheduled lighter days
for the rest of the month,
just in case crises came up.
So I should still be able to come out of my hole.
Don’t count this boy out yet!