Mary Todd Lincoln

Her life
started in anonymity,
she wanted to be noticed;
advanced with tenacity,
she wanted to stand out;
grew into celebrity,
she wanted to be loved;
festered with egocentricity,
she wanted to be worshipped;
clawed into aristocracy,
she wanted to be better than;
decayed with vainglory,
she wanted to be remembered;
and crumbled in calamity,
inevitably.

Now she just wants anonymity.

Everybody knows her
but her.

She wanders around
in her own thoughts
walking awkwardly
in her own shoes.

The weight of glory
can be like a great story
dragged out into eight boring
chapters, when it
could have been two and
should have been one
short poem.