Inbox Zero

There are a handful of emails
lingering in my gmail
preventing me from achieving
the coveted inbox zero.

A pleasantry never returned,
a logistic ungoverned,
a reminder to update the website
of a man whose wife’s a widow.

These threads remain,
refusing to unchain
their present from my past,
my past from their presence.

I can’t bring myself to hit archive,
face the truth and accept that I’ve
failed those who reached out for help
in my lazy incoherence.

As long as those emails remain
in my mind the myth sustains
that one day I’ll respond to them
and set things right, once again.