Whisperings

Dear Fate:

(no comma for you and no quarter; this ain’t that kind of letter)

*

You whispered in my ear when I was three days old

and you tied me to you intricate

weaving your sticky strands of lack

with nimble fingers and dancing eyes

With cord you bound me cautious

spinning ever tighter to you

like a top with only bottom

all the while whispering

whispering invitation…

*

Did you search through your stores

dig deep in your cellar for some vintage vial

you’d been saving for someone special?

Did you swirl it sophisticated and savour

the sweet aroma of my future?

Did you pronounce:

“This one has legs!”

as you poured it in my ear

whispering?

*

I imagine a smile crept onto your lips

and your eyes slithered with delight

as you loomed over me

and the rest of my family

dominoes all

positioned just so

on your singular desperate tack

stifling your Frankenstein cackle

to a whisper

*

You must have thought I too would disappear

like foam in the terrible wake

of your wanton cruel passage

as your plated keel slammed over and over

and again ‘til Father Brother Sister Mother all

rested their oars each on their own gunnels

far from shore

and met their own watery depths

without a whisper

*

Well here I am still

I have stopped running I have

stopped waiting for some divine intervention

ex machina to wrest me from your embrace

I have picked up my own scissors

and face to face I snip you

standing tall

with a voice of my own

beyond any whisper

*

Your remnant strands fall

atop the dice you were to cast lots

you and Destiny

for my heart

Instead it is my voice

my own courageous yop

forged by my own loving hand

shouting in the wilderness.

*

You should have seen it coming

*

Yours no longer,

Ward