Beleaguered by all the choices

- that aren’t:

there is no real option when one knows

where one goes.

 

So Libra, she sits on her diplomatic fence

and chews her knuckles in-between.

A see-saw lady practised in staying uppermost

on the blade of the opposites

equidistant, where they meet.

That is the game she plays.

 

But in earnest for her Life’s Work

it is no either/or

nor side she’s asked to take -  or make.

Not even the consumatory uniting of those two

for that’s the Scorpions job!

 

It is far worse that that - her fate.

She must forgo the third principle - always:

the triangles she so happily, naturally makes.

Forgo the eternal compromise

the ultimately rational (and supposedly peaceful) solution

of having her gateau and eating it.

She must  opt for one option only

against all her inclinations, appetites

and even principles

her intrepid Opposite, the one-track god of war

embodying her dharma, myth:

to commit unswervingly to one ideal

and then fight/stand/fall

till death doth them part.

Not at all her scene.

Not at all logical.  Or fair.

To condemn this arbiter supreme

qualified and specialised by nature and practice

 

 - the shuttle mouth, the shuttle heart -

to a fixed (un)alternative

- that she must select and abide by

an immovable fate.

 

 

1989