Labors Lost

Let's make it official -
Sadie's off the market.

I guess it should have
been obvious for a while,
but my pathological need
to be charming and endearing
to women (okay,
in general, which certainly
gets me in unwanted trouble)
backfired when I allowed her
to become the primary object
of my favors, which resulted
in another round of heavy
self-pity and woe-is-me.
To my credit, now this third
one, this third experience,
has helped me along in
the effort to avoid it from
happening again (well,
that and the fact that
the second is still knocking
around in my head),
which is one among many
things I desperately need.

And in desperation
and through desperation,
I have learned of moderation,
that if I obsess,
in the only sense I
currently know
and with all the facts
that haunt me,
only pain may follow.

So again I thank you, Sadie,
for being the unwitting
agent of my liberation.

I need not pursue you more,
not to cause you pain
and learn still more
that pain it will cause me still,
and we shall all be the happier for it.

Well, pretty much.