Heaven's Gate

The life we live is the only one
we will experience; best
to get it right, if we can.
We're assured we are all
imbued with free will;
choices and their consequences
ours alone. Are they?
Fortune and circumstances then
notwithstanding, we must be
responsible, ipso facto,
for what our life becomes.

And we with it. Those choices?
When we felt it best to embrace
chance, opt for the challenge,
alter the equation, and steered
unerringly toward manifest destiny
then discovered, shocked and
disconsolate, that the beckoning,
shimmering finger of fate was really
a provocative tease that did not
mean to honour its promise and
our naively uncompromising trust.

We have learned a life lesson that
there is a heaven and it represents
our heart's desire which through
diligent search and application we
will ultimately claim as our entitled
birthright. But wait: Hell lingers patiently
backstage to enter and settle us within the
depths of despair and grief as fortune grips
the glittering evanescence of heaven to
tear it from our grasp, inviting
discordance to claim sovereignty.