Lucky Dip Number 21
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Forewarned
A fixed-wheel cycle I'd borrowed that day And thought I had mastered it well But the future failed to conform to plan As I am about to tell. I clearly remember the thought that came As I passed our church and hall A minute before the painful event- 'Pride comes before a fall'. My feet slipped off the pedals that spun And kept on spinning around And try as I might I could not keep control And knew I would hit the ground. Before two women could reach my home And worry my family there I quickly asked to be helped to a phone And rang to make them aware. My father and mother were soon by my side And came to the hospital too Where the size of needle that drained my knee Might well have belonged to a zoo! When the plaster started to clamp my foot My mother was again by my side And little I knew I'd be wearing it still Even till the day she died. She suffered poor health for a very long time Indeed from before I was born; Would actions differ if we could foresee What the future might try to forewarn? An era has passed away since then And I wish we could hope to surmise The painful things experience may teach Before we have learned to be wise. 'Avarice must be our god' Keynes* said 'For a hundred years or more' But how then to slow the pedals down Before crashing to the floor? |
* Celebrated economist John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946
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