Fickle life

** fickle life **
The often tiled remnants
Of another Pompeii house
Give us stern remembrance
Of when Vesuvius coughed
Makes us acknowledge frailty of life
How fickle life can be
In another city in another place
The eruption would be news
Stories written on their fate
The sliding doors of time
Through which actions moved
If this difference then that
We often mark the course
I knew him or was there
Only an hour before
I often take that road
Or buy something in that store
Yet fate and time had not combined
To place you at epicentre
Of another person's strangeness
Another person's political agenda
You were on another path
Yet none can see what lies ahead
A failure of tyres to grip
Encounter with a junkie desperate for a fix
Your maiming may be minor
Less complete than death
And then you will discover
How deep runs the thread
Of your own good humour
The resilience to resist
The darker moods and treasonous thoughts
To take you out of time
Discover then as Pompeii knew
When Gods perform and harsh actions take
Little poor mortals can do.