THE FATEFUL CHOICE

for Philip Golabuk

The choice of hubris or humility
Confronts us all as we engage our fates;
Not what befalls us is our destiny,
But that which our responsiveness creates.

We may be willful and imperious,
Demanding everything be as we say
Until we drive ourselves delirious
With agony, combating our fate’s sway;

Or, better, wisely, we shall find the grace
To acquiesce to what we can’t avoid
And humbly take what Fate bids us embrace
Or face the bitterness of being destroyed.

“What must be shall be” rules—it’s que sera,
Which is our only way toward Shangri-La.

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