Prayer for a Second-Guess Outcome

Hieronymus Bosch, De tuin der lusten / "The Lust Garden," oil on oak panels. Called The Garden of Earthly Delights. Museo del Prado, Madrid

In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

—Shakespeare, “That time of year thou mayst in me behold” (Sonnet 73)

  I pray to Heaven that I may be wrong,

—dumbest of pleas, it's hard to voice,

But thought allows no better choice,

Petitioning in darkening controversy,

Bad though the consequences may be,

If scant compared to what might well befall

Should it transpire I’m not wrong at all.

For if not wrong, I fear, I might be right.

  Daimonion, a second guess or sight

I ask not for myself, but for all redress—

Birds of the air, the dolphins in the sea—

That, in the upshot, life may yet shine bright.

I’ve always been a fool, so let me now, too, be,

The dumb self-petitioner of this sad address.

Friday, July 4, 2025