Careless wind

If I’d known (understood)
the fallacy of sunk investment
I would have left before the fall.

I would have known,
that beyond the first,
every hour
every night
every dollar spent was lost.
But hope, though brittle,
may bloom for a while.

When I dreamt of sharing
you thought of gaining
when I spent my time planning
you did the scheming.

But who can I blame but myself
and the wind?

The wind doesn’t care
without a thought, it just moves
careless and free,
and leaves in its wake
the wreck of the bloom.

So broken, alone, I linger
and soak in the sunshine
to heal and to grow
my flowers alone.

AI generated picture of apple blossoms ravaged by wind

Today Punam hosts dVerse with a prompt:

For today’s poetics challenge, I would like you to write a poem about any pivotal moment in your life that left you with gnawing regrets.

I must say that this prompt is an amalgamation of all the time I spent too much time in a postition I did not like. The key point is really the sunk cost fallacy which is very applicable to our investments as well as our holding on to matters that have been lost for a long time.

May 27, 2025

26 responses to “Careless wind

  1. I too have written about wasted time, Björn, after which I decided that it would be better to spend my days in solitude. I really like the lines:

    ‘But hope, though brittle,
    may bloom for a while’

    and

    ‘…I linger
    and soak in the sunshine
    to heal and to grow
    my flowers alone.’

  2. “The wind doesn’t care
    without a thought, it just moves
    careless and free,
    and leaves in its wake
    the wreck of the bloom.”

    That is absolutely stunning.

  3. “So broken, alone, I linger
    and soak in the sunshine
    to heal and to grow
    my flowers alone”

    Sometimes that is the only way forward . I love how you blame the wind too.

  4. “But who can I blame but myself
    and the wind?”

    ah the choices we make

    much♡love

  5. What’s the line from “Macbeth”? – “I am in blood seep’d so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as crossing over.” Pride of ownership, I guess. Great last line again.

  6. Knowing when to give up on a business or a relationship is the most difficult decision to make Björn though if you haven’t faced it at some time in your life, you probably haven’t lived…

  7. Oh my! That was beautifully sad…the regrets are felt…sigh…I cannot pick a favorite part as it is all so moving…the wind,wrecked blooms, alone…

  8. I was guilty of the sunk cost fallacy – nothing rational about it all.

    I’m older now, but I wonder if I’m any wiser.

  9. This is very effective and I understand that you feel you wasted time holding on to a position you did not like. You don’t know, however, what the alternative would have been for you so you can’t really say it was a wrong choice.

  10. Björn, “the wreck of the bloom” catches me right in the gut—those words seem to distill both the beauty and the cost of holding on too long. I feel the ache of recognition in this piece.

    ~David

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