Lady Destiny - a poem

Lady Destiny

Destiny punches no time clock
so if you think you've found yours,
be generous in giving her all they hours she will demand.

Others will not consider your allegiance
normal
and they may think you're a mutant fruit on the tree
that's best nipped in the bud.
Give the skeptics their two cents' worth
but keep the rest for yourself
and for Lady Destiny.

Do your best to play the game
of the drones who pack the pollen home
and the mud daubers who are too ofen deaf
to her call.
Why?
Because the hive rewards the team player
with sustenance
that allows you
to listen long
to Lady Destiny.

Don't ignore her when she calls your name.
She will be your one true love
seeking you as you seek her throughout your years;
returning to reward your sacrifice
and to punish your indifference.

And after you do all the things you choose,
though you forget their names and faces
to your final day,
you will remember Lady Destiny,
and you will judge
the value of your life
to be only as worthwhile
as you were true
to her.

-- Job Conger

. . . . . It's been a quiet week, poetry-production-wise, so here is a poem I wrote in 1996. Coming up this coming Wednesday is a poetry and prose open mic, sponsored by Poets & Writers Literary Forum, at IMO's Pizza, 651 Durkin Drive, Springfield, Ill ennui, signup for open mic starting about 6:45. I don't plan to attend BUT if you have not attended before, or haven't in a long time, and you e me that you WILL attend -- writer@eosinc.com -- I will attend.
. . . .Why so conditional? The venue needs faces that are new to the regulars, myself included. I have heard so many of the same poems by the same fine poets -- and good people, fine conversationalists who don't beat their dogs or keep their significant others unwatered and locked up in a pen (no pun intended) for days at a time -- who haven't written anything new in two years, that I can almost silently lip-sync their words as they read them. With one exception, I've brought at least one new poem or song to each IMO's reading I have attended over the last year. I'm not asking the same of the rest of the world, but it's getting harder for me to live up to my own expectation of myself. If you e me by Wednesday noon, I will not only attend, I will bring a new poem to read.