Desultory..!

Just take another look, this time a bit deeper.
There’s just too many variables
that you probably haven’t considered.
There’s another subtext lingering behind
the sentences you’ve taken at face
value/at first look.

Timing is usually everything, except
when you’re not sure you have all that much.
Then it becomes about strategy, conniving,
figuring out how to put a square block
into a round hole (and knowing full-well
that it can’t possibly be done).

There’s always someone giving outdated advice,
thinking they can manipulate the rules
and smirking when they’re walking away.
Fishing for compliments, hoping you’ll point
out the brilliance they’re putting on display.
Just a cracked little smile, maybe.

Just take another look, this time
you’ll be caught up in another tangled web
of obtrusive figures and facts, which one will dazzle
you next?
You think a bit more to yourself over a coffee
that this isn’t quite what you had planned– but
you’re dying to suss it all out, to add meaning
where there’s only a dilapidated chaos.

Run a little bit faster toward an early grave
and say you meant to collapse
at the half-way mark, anyway.

Just take another look.
It might be your last chance.