Whacked

 
Do you wonder what will happen when the
big whack, selected just for you, 
hits backside your head out of the blue 
as if the gods, bored with their Olympian tasks,
for fun rolled the dice 
and you lose?

The scenery around you will slip back to a bleaker time 
as leaves fallen and matted in mud can't fly away
for being weighted down by snow.

Your plans and put-offs, your heaven-blessed hopes
like chaff or ashes are carried away out of substance
by forces you can't understand.

What will become of your face of worldly love
that your lover kissed, that your children loved
that made you believe in yourself?

And patience, like cool spring nights in Canada before the geese return
and the wheatfields of Manitoba still sleep,
is it a stranger in your life of ambition?

There is much you will have to betray, backs will often be turned.
And you will hear behind you the fading sounds of life lived loudly
and after your head stops hurting listen for the song that can be.