Phytotherapy + It's Going to Take a Long Time (2 poems for catching up)

Yeah, St. John's Wort
brought me back to myself,
but not the self
I'd hoped
to see. When
I was small I felt so often
so frustrated and impotent.
If What I Want
doesn't change at all
The Way Things Are,
why bother wanting?

-

All day long at the store
while I looked like a clown and fed vanity
the radio played:
well-turned love songs from the 1940s
a more innocent time
when we could deny sex
and pretend that everyone was white.

People in love aren't cute and funny.
They are the reason I can't sleep through the night.
I need help. I don't feel capable.
I wish I'd spent my time learning
things other than how to tie a bow tie.