Branching Frailties

I shouldn’t have rested;
I should have gone home and held my son.
The weight of all I cannot do,
Of all I leave undone
Crushes me to ground.

The threats surround me
On all sides, all the time,
The consuming cruelty
Pursues a thousand crimes
I cannot prevent.

Please Father,
Change my circumstance.

Put me in the hands
Of tenderness, for once.