Often do I have cause
For thought, yet seldom pause
Here for long.
Perhaps it is a strong
Desire to forget my fate
Which leads me, (be it early or late),
Without a backward glance
Lest by some mischance
I see my own ghost,
To post-haste, exit the graveyard gate
And enter again
This temporary realm of men.
I have lost myself in arms
Heedless of alarms
That warn of expensive charms.
I have smelt
The rose and felt
Its power,
Losing precious hour
In many a rented bower.
I have seen it all, plain as a pikestaff
And heard Nemesis’s mocking laugh.
Yet oft times a man learns too late
That he makes his own fate.
Some say
In a place far away
The gods play dice
And we humans pay the price.
How easy to blame some external force,
“Matters will take their course.
We must to fate submit
And our teeth in the face of adversity grit”.
Macbeth his dagger drew
And ran king Duncan through.
It was his own shame.
No witches where to blame.
We make our own fate,
Though oft we hate
The fact however true,
It was we alone, who ran King Duncan through.
She stands,
corkscrew in hand.
The wine beckons.
Seconds,
Crawl past,
Until, at last,
With a twist
Of her wrist,
the cork slowly rises.
There are no surprises.
Fate knocks
as the cork pops.
Do not tempt fate for she will always have the last laugh. This truism was brought home to me on 26 December when I wrote a post entitled “A Good Bath”. In it I described how I had spilled a cup of tea over my laptop’s keyboard. I then went on to poke fate most impolitely by suggesting that my machine appeared to have suffered no ill effects from it’s bath. Fate’s ire was roused and when I next attempted to log on to my laptop the machine’s keyboard refused to work, hence my silence between 27 December and today (30 December 2014).
I did write a post earlier today with the aid of a USB keyboard. However, Fate, still wrathfull owing to my tempting of her caused the laptop to behave erratically. The context menu kept popping up without rhyme or reason and I was forced to abandon my attempt. With due abeysance to the goddess Fate I trust that this post will, in fact go live. I am, incidentally drinking a cup of coffee as I write this with the aid of a USB keyboard (the laptop one being well and truly up the spout). The cup is, however on the carpet well out of harms way!
(for my post of 26 December please see, http://newauthoronline.com/2014/12/26/a-good-bath/).
K Morris - Poet 