Is there a twelve-step program for this?

At one point in my life I felt confident enough to make a sweeping generalization about short stories.  Basically, I hated them.  My argument was, by the time I get invested in one, it's over.  There were only ever a few short stories I really liked.  A lot of them were Poe's.  And ironically for me (because I dislike James Joyce so intensely), certain ones from Dubliners.  Maybe if I'm on an airplane for five hours and have only the New Yorker to read, then I might give another short story a chance.

But . . . I'm about to share a secret with you.  I think some of my short story loathing was born out of jealousy of short story writers.  See, it takes a real talent to be able to create characters the reader cares about, a mood, a theme and a message all in under 10,000 words.  I don't think I have that capability.  It's why I like TV shows- they go on and on and on and you have seasons to develop your stories and characters (unless you get canceled).

Once I was able to pinpoint my major issues with short stories, I was able to work through them.  I mean, I like children's stories.  They're easy to swallow.  They often don't have many layers.  And consider a poem.  Is a poem that much different from a short story?  Poets are trying to convey something in an even shorter amount of space.  My thing with poetry, though, is that much of the time you're really only investing in a page or two.  Whatever effort you put into understanding it, it's rare that you feel ripped from the world when you finish reading a poem. 

All that aside, I decided to make an effort to put some short story elements into a poem.  Maybe if I could marry the two, I could be more accepting.  This is my attempt at a poem in three parts, connected by a common theme:

 Knowledge Is Power

I.
Mom used to say
she had eyes in the back of her head.
I wonder when I will grow mine.

II.
Would I recognize myself on the street
if I was walking five steps behind,
my back half,
my other half
and I
never properly introduced?

III.
When did we give up our fascination
with the backs of cereal boxes?
Or did cereal boxes
become too unwieldy
because we buy them Costco-size?