tempted by temptation

I've been doing a poetry challenge where we have to write a poem each month based on the prompt we're given. June's prompt was "tempted". I'll admit, I didn't even look at the prompt until two days before the deadline.

So I started thinking about what tempts me. As always, I looked up the word in a dictionary and also looked at the origin. Knowing something isn't in your best interest, and doing it anyways. Well, that could sum up a good portion of my life. But there's also a difference between giving in to temptation and taking a risk, which is my go-to move being an Aries. At least with a risk, there is the opportunity for reward. Temptation offers instant gratification with an underlying layer of shame and guilt.

Anyways, as the deadline day arrived and I still hadn't written anything, I was tempted to not write a poem about temptation. Or write a poem about being tempted to not write a poem about temptation. But that seemed redundant.

Then I went for a walk through the rainforest and instantly I met temptation on the trail. The poem spilled out of me, I met my deadline, and found accomplishment instead of guilt and shame :)

tempted

i made myself a promise

that i would only eat the salmon berries

on the bush outside my door

because the bear

doesn’t go there

and all the other berries on the trails:

perfectly plump and crimson

i will leave for my ursidae friends

even when all i have to do is reach out

i walk on

even after five six times of wanting to pluck

and consume

i walk on

the hardest part is that it’s only a promise to myself

nobody would ever know, except me

and the bear

when the branches were bare

and so i walk on