Morning with Alarming Forecast

Dismay is not as bad as grief
Or pain, although it can follow
From them. Dismay more clearly ends

Rather than eases or abates.
Think of something that panicked you—
The leaky pipe, the unpaid bill,

The awful evaluation.
However they resolved, you’re here.
You’re no longer dismayed by them.

Dismay is the antipodes
Of May, or antipodal May,
The lip of winter in the mind,

The thing you just discovered might
Get worse before it gets better.
Dismay is part of the climate

Of a constantly spinning world
But not the part that’s regular
Or enduring. Dismay’s weather.