Be lazy and you’re going to have to be lucky;
Then further luck breeds further indolence.
Eventually you’re lying flat on a beach
Almost unable even to open your eyes
With coconuts falling at incredible speed
To splat apart a foot beside your head
Opening up their meat and milk; you’re a new
Gauguin sketch, till the tide decides to come in
(As unexpected fluids end such states).
Be energized now, striding back to the Jeep,
And a fence obstructs you, a sudden total eclipse
Impairs you, wild foxes encircle you:
Your luck will run out at the harshest time,
When you’re about to give up needing it.
© 2008 Billy Wisse
was born in Montreal, Canada and studied English literature at McGill University. He now lives in Los Angeles, and works writing questions for the quiz show Jeopardy!
