Guilt and castañas

Ought I to be ashamed,
watching beautiful women jog by?

Perhaps ashamed
that they're jogging and I’m not

No shame, surely, in sitting here
trying to read a children’s book
in Castellano

And, exhausted from the exercise,
repairing to a random page of Heaney
(“Mid-Term Break”)

But shame comes with the territory
or, better, guilt

Relief comes in the impact of castañas
in the dirt