Failure Caught Up

Failure caught up to me again today
and by the time I noticed I hadn’t noticed
I was off my track and chatting to him merrily.

Everything I had to do was nonsense,
it seemed unsporting to dismiss him
just to labour on myself
when the day was clearly ripe with opportunity.

So we gabbed by the riverbank, then took
a stroll to town and whiled away an hour
drinking coffee in a run-down
tea-room tucked in by the bridge,
the tea dribbling down our chin clefts.

We still had lots to talk about
so we went to a pub and had a beer
then decided to go and see a movie.

By then we were hungry, so had to eat.

I couldn’t have counted my blessings ever as often
as today, so good it was to be free,
with all the world to see,
and only this town and day to see it in
and Failure always there beside, courteous,
polite, sincere, honest, undemanding,
his one concern my welfare
and my respect for his right to see it
satisfactorily maintained as he felt proper.

I’m not a cruel man,
I couldn’t deny a good friend
such a plain and open appeal.

At the end of the day we parted
but he promised we could do it all again today.

I don’t know where we’re headed,
I bet it’s good, though -
Failure has no end of plans.
 
David McLintock

If you have any thoughts on this poem,  David McLintock would be pleased to hear them.