Fear of Failure Is Born
Failure, I knew you
before I could spell you.
At three
I toddled toward Dad,
arms raised.
He bent down,
a grizzly sniffing
my morning diapers,
yanked them down,
smacked my bottom
“You shoulda held it.”
At four
I waited at the breakfast table
for a goodbye kiss,
Crayolaing my coloring book
outside the lines.
He leaned close,
bear-breath in my face
growled
“You can do better
keep it inside the lines.”
His hairy arm rose,
smack
to the back of my head,
My forehead hit the table
“Failure”
tattooed on my brain.
I cried.
He snarled,
“Quiet! Real men never cry.”
I protected
my secret shame
in a double locked
dark cellar door
with pit bull ferocity.
….
This poem is from the What Lives in Me by Robert M. Tobias (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://finishinglinepress.com/product/what-lives-in-me-by-robert-m-tobias/
Robert M. Tobias, a debut author at 82, completed his fourteen-year career as the General Counsel of the National Treasury Employees Union successfully suing Presidents Nixon ($533M in back pay) and Reagan (reversing his cancellation of all federal appointments from the time of his election to the date of his inauguration), and several federal agencies concerning violations of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. He then served as the union president for sixteen years leading federal employees as they lobbied for increased federal employee pay and benefits. His third twenty-four-year career involved creating the Key Executive Leadership Certificate Program at American University, targeted toward increasing career federal supervisors’ leadership capacity. What Lives in Me, is career four.
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