What are the Chances, Chances Are

What are the chances:

That your most despised frenemy suddenly found themselves 
sitting down next to you in the only open seat-


of being late and avoiding an accident-

Someone looks like you, but worse-
They are better versions-

Saying something meaningful aloud-
It becomes true-
Anything true can be said-

There are second impressions
called shadows-

We can make ourselves proud-
without too much pride-

Our dreams are someone else's-
You are the true version 
of someone else's dreams-

True love is only a test-

Chances are:

-more likely you will drown (one in eighty-four)
than getting killed by a shark (one in nearly four million)

-you will end up looking like your dog, your mate,
your old self

-the Universe listens

-fear of shadows once saved our lives
fear of shadows from towers we have built
enshrouds our lives

-nightmares are honest discussions

-Love's Labour's Lost



 Painting by Unknown c. 1892 in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Just take a chance

The games we play

occupy our attention,

give us chance,

to entertain and refrain us

from certainties. We gamble

to participate in our fate

in the end, the outcome,

the odds

on us, against loss.

We leverage the inevitable,

predict the unfathomable

and recognize our own home range,

stable-steady,

gait in the headlong stride

of the dark horse.

-just to see-

We dance with destiny

then trip on our own shod

limbs that lead to

breaking those lucky legs

and just chalk it up to the chance

we lost.

Image is of a wood engraving by W.L. Sheppard (drawn by W.B. Meyers), Harpers Weekly October 1870, Betting on the Favorite.