Life: Haves and Have-Nots

Good times keep me going

Bad times keep me growing

Uncertainty keeps me entertained

Karma keeps me chained

Love walks me with God

Hate marks me a fraud

Euphoria tempts with false sights

Suffering makes my stand right

History makes me wonder who wrote it

Debate makes me challenge partisans who quote it

Geography makes me question the borders

And those, behind them, issuing orders

Language makes me human

Between the lines, read, acumen

Deceit is the currency of the world

Life a flag, at half-mast, unfurled

Had it been better had I not been born

And dodged the pain from my crown of thorns?

Is it better to go-and-grow from times good-and-bad

Than to wonder, not, from a life not had?

I am spewed into the world

Uninvited, unwelcomed, and hurled

Come what may, it's mine to be

Being alive makes up for what life does to me

Inspired by Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses:

“The fact of being alive compensated for what life did to one.”