For Linda
O Kismet, Infrangible Kismet
What silent woes have you
To enact upon my soul?
Are you conjuring some incommodious devices
To deprive me of my heart’s treasure
And leave me in the feculence of deprivation
Will you promulgate my cause
That it may effulge from the obscurity of restrictions
And propagate its nascent confluence.
Would that I could read
What you have written upon the wind
And behold what you have envisaged for my tomorrows
O rapacious Kismet
I have ratiocinated the uncertainties
Of chance and time;
I have concluded that I am a servant of your behest
And can do naught but await your consummation
If you will not permit me
To satisfy the appetence of my longing
Before I lay me down to die
Allow me a moment’s pleasure
To utter a word of love and my Houri goodbye
Kenneth George Dill
Mandeville Jamaica 1978
