KEEPING SCORE

KEEPING SCORE

After all I’ve done for you, why can’t you do this for me?
We bargain with God or the universe for some sense of parity,
Yet sure as the bubbles in my tub that sometimes splash upon the floor,
Fate is murky and indifferent, and does not believe in keeping score.

God is not a referee in a tired old baseball game,
Like your favorite singer who you think knows you so well,
God can be a diva who scarcely knows your name.
And Fate can be a miscreant who damns your soul to hell.
We may as well not fight it, sometimes love goes unrequited.
Sometimes in love, one partner gives less,
Sometimes in love one partner gives more,
There’s little to be gained from the act of keeping score.

We fly for awhile on the wings of a smile, all is wine and roses.
But we never reach the promised land just like the punished Moses.
We reach home plate far too late, gasping out our final pleas,
After all I’ve done for you, why can’t you do this for me?

And yet it never works that way, we never fully understand.
God is not a street peddler, you cannot bargain with the man.
We live our lives with a child-like faith that borders on entitlement,
Then cry like babies in the crib when our days have all been spent.
All because we never learned when our feet first hit the floor,
God’s not an umpire in the clouds involved in keeping score.

I’ve watched friends come, I’ve watched them go, I’ve often questioned why,
Wondering if I’ll be a bargainer when it comes my time to die.
Will I ascend the heavens screaming it’s not fair?
Will I accept it stoically, with a calm and graceful flair?
Only God knows this for sure and he frankly doesn’t care.
He has bigger fish to fry than the meager death or life of me,
The sooner I accept it, the sooner I shall be set free.
No one knows the end of the dance, only Fate or random chance,
No one knows what waits in store.
Life is murky, life’s a crap shoot, life does not keep score.

-Bruce Potts
Copyright 2011
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED