Do I Dare?

(Photo taken from boeing747.deviantart.com)

Alexander Knight

(Written in response to lines 45-46 of

T. S. Eliot’s, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”)

Do I dare

Disturb the Universe?

I see a cliff

Without a sign to warn

A car driving toward…

Do I dare?

Man in an alley,

With knife and hood,

And a girl walking to…

Do I dare?

Do I dare;

If meant to be

This crime

These deaths

Are meant to be?

I know what they will say—

Those men who know

The Universe—

Their deaths were meant to be,

But won’t they say

If I spoke up

That it was meant?

Would they say

I must not disturb the Universe?

I say

I see the future every day

I see them both and choose

Which one they saw—

Those men who know the Universe—

Then and yet.

I see my nothing

Meant to die

Or my warnings

Meant to save.

Both were meant to be

But never both.

And so, do I dare?

Do I dare disturb the Universe?

The unchangeable thens and yets

That I see

With signs and

I see.

Can I dare?

February 14, 2008