luck

any excuse for your own failures:

the stars
and their alignment
today or at the hour of your birth

the phase of the moon.
the curve of the belly of a
pregnant number 6, the stab
of a fatal 4.

any excuse for your incompetence:
tea leaves.
the entrails of a crow, a pig.
three butterflies together
on a flower in the yard.
an open umbrella in the hall.

any excuse for your own ineptitudes.
the life is not the life you were born into:
you choose.
reach out with your left hand
devil hand, monkey paw
sinister sinstral sinuous serpent
and seize the remains of the day.

no excuse for your failures.
the stars are indifferent coals.
you are not so important
that nature conspires to keep you
where you are
cowering beneath a comforter
and waiting for the calendar to turn.