KARMA

One chance is all we are given?
one lifetime to get it right
to learn, err, repent, be saved?

Are we born by chance into
privilege, opportunity, safety, comfort
or a more lowly existence
either of which
may be plagued with conflict, abuse
illness, oppression, violence, insanity?

Some of us roam the earth with no home.
Some of us cram into boats
to escape danger, for a better life
only to sink beneath the waves.

Some cross borders seeking refuge
only to be placed in cages.
Some of us are unjustly charged,
sentenced, imprisoned executed—or
serve life sentences of other kinds.

Some of us reach beyond our grasp and rise,
by effort and good fortune—or
struggle a lifetime in survival mode,
falling into the well of grief and despair.

We emphathize, bemoan, tolerate others' tragic fates

or orchestrate those fates 
until Death frees them
from this one life they did not choose.

Only to be damned
not having been one of the elect or the lucky?

Have we not instead chosen to come to earth—
this “tavern where drunkards get sober” to
ask a question, sound a call, gather and share wisdom,
cry in the wilderness or bear witness?

We 

who endure the mystery of good and evil
ease pain and suffering--or
pass judgement, command and condemn.

Free will, fortune, fate
weave through our earthly comings and goings
until everyone will have been everyone else—
other lives, other loves, other loss

Other...Other…Other
Who will be our other?
our mother, our lover, our children, our friend
our nemesis—our judge and jury

Everyone is the "other"
No one our savior
Over many lifetimes
coming into being and dissolving
again and again in
constellations of anonymous stars
moving across the heavens

There is only “love and mystery"
until all will be well—
until all manner of things will be well.