Middle Sets – Written Tuesday 21st October 2025 (Aged 50)

Middle Sets

No genius
to fall back on
and console me
when it has all gone wrong.

No —
oh, but if only…
If only it was there,
there to pull my curtains together,
there to stop me feeling lonely.

No genius.
No,
not for me.
So, somehow, mistakes
will never set me free.

I was always just middle sets —
not the best,
but average, with occasional smiling.
Discovery of any genius
never arriving.

And they say,
they say that I have “done well”,
but only know the power,
the power of my swell.

And only I know,
only I know
the nature of my rack and ruin,
the one that exists inside of me.

No genius
to fall back on.
It has always been
just ego
and basic planning.

James Garratt – 21st October 2025

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