Blind Date

Misanthropic, misused, misspent,

My youth came and quickly went.

And now the cold easily reaches my bones,

A pain drowned out, by more urgent woes.

A wall I face, I can not scale,

Me too weak, too drained, too frail.

Most my life, I walked behind the leading pack,

much of the past now strains my back.

And as Time,

that petulant fool,

Who nonetheless

my life does rule,

Pushes me forward to a date I fear,

Hopelessly, frantically, backward I steer.

This date I have no choice but to keep,

Nearer does it come, with familiar creep,

Its vengeance it will cruelly reap,

The cost is ultimate, infinitely steep.

Nothing to do but rehearse my role,

As I face the abyss, that darkened hole….