The Secret to Minimal Success

Life can be a fool's errand sometimes.

Walking life's dim corridors

in a cascade of closing doors,

slipping through each

(at the last second)

like a fire escape Houdini -

a sine wave of falling dominos

nipping at my heels.

 

O Fortuna!

My last chip tumbles to felt,

watching as the cards are dealt.

Stupid, serendipitous grinning

as I exit with two dollar winnings.

Never won a grand prize -

Just enough luck to scrape by

until my demise arrives.

 

I'm running the gauntlet,

all Goofus and Gallant -

juggling horseshoes and hand grenades

while swords thrust upward at my legs,

stepping through Rube Goldberg's cube

with my Reebok Rubik's shoes.

 

Caller number nine!

Stay on the line...

Everything will be ok, the

fire trucks are on their way.

 

No one ever got

hurt by being

middle of the road.

Just a Rabbit my car mowed -

I tried to save it,

but all I could bring back

is this foot pedal

in my pocket.

 

Reviews

[yinseriv]

The day we had the lock out I had reviewed this poem and lost the review when I couldn't post it. I liked the way each stanza related to the stages of life. I looked within the layers and could find the choices a person makes that leaves them to miss opportunities.

I also looked at the poem just on the surface as a good read. Either way, as always, you present a work which is complex, but with enough imagary to allow the reader to take it where they want to go.

[MrJodie]

Flippin' brilliant, mate! Okay, so maybe the Australian accent needs a little work. Mine, not yours, I mean...

Look, this thing's got imagery and layers coming out the... ahem.

I appreciate the descriptive details, "Rube Goldberg's cube" and "Rabbit my car mowed" but the one I wonder about is "sine wave." I worked as a sound engineer for ten years and I don't get the reference. A sine wave is a natural waveform. Regular and gentle with a predictable rise and fall. It would make more sense to me, and create more tension, if you referred to a tsunami or other type of crashing, surface wave. I know, it's probably more "obvious" and less poetic, but it's just my opinion.

This is very good stuff and I'm eager to read more of your work. Keep it up!

[Damian Alan Gray]

I like the way this rolls. I have a bad habit of reading poems and then reading aloud. This poem was definitely created for the spoken word variety, and it begs to be on stage. Nice work, Michael.

[Wordcrafter]

Fascinated, I like the unexpected twists.. and the gambler's metaphor too, the rhythm like roling dice..