I COULD JUST AS EASILY BE A POTATO
                            by Nikki Renee Nafziger (DBA Nikki Nash)

     I could just as easily be a potato
     growing eyes
     that choose not to see -
     to life I would learn to say no
     and deprive
     myself of what I could be.

     Half-baked ideas of a world I don't live in
     consuming
     me to retreat -
     frustration-fried, I won't try again
     assuming
     affected defeat.

     So, I will sleep and vegetate
     dirt-laden
     in tuberous repose;
     fantasy's the company I isolate -
     lone-maiden
     shutting poison-eyes closed.

     I could just as easily be a potato
     softening
     from passage of time -
     into over-aged hazards I grow,
     bumps browning,
     oozing tumbledown slime.

     Peeling away all my defenses,
     stripped naked,
     I'm caught off guard;
     quickly rushing to my senses -
     invaded
     by Life's boiling lard.