Tangles, escalating

Too tired to teach, I watched the students
pulling string of different colors
from a tangled mass, and thought—
Here’s how I can help.  I spent
an hour or more pulling colored threads
and sorting into piles:
A simple task, like housekeeping,
and yet, if left undone, the work
can escalate exponentially.
Think of all the other tangles –
thoughts, dreams, and relationships
that, left unsorted, also can become
overwhelming…