Contender

On this day
As on many days past
Cold hard fatigue
Conspired with
Lifeless gray tasks
 
And I felt it:
that fist swelling deep in my heart
contractions tightening, ache expanding
rising in waves up my throat
threatening to thwart my intentions
birthing tears as its only release
 
On this day  
Unlike many days past
I sensed its earliest beginnings
resisted its call to melancholy rumination
defied the urge to run flailing
into passionless arms
or sniff the numbing ether
of imagined connection
 
On this day
I rose above its downward pull
avoided manufacturing new regrets
of naïve vulnerability
 
On this day  
I swallowed  
- no, devoured -  
baseless misery
 
This round,
I met it
and I prevailed