Tough Times

Life comes in dribs and drabs
But experience plays hide and seek upon your mind
Until that moment when you cannot change it—
And then it hits you hard between your eyes
And knocks you senseless;
You awaken in a parallel universe
One that you did not ask for and did not want.
Dazed you collect your sensibilities
And arise to find it is too late to adjust
And so you seethe and move down avenues of
Confusion and anger and self doubt.
It’s too late to swing and curse the darkness
What’s done is done
And you are once again the vanquished 
From circumstances written by your fate.
Disarmed disjointed and bewildered
You tread a lonely path lined with thistles and briars
Until you feel the pieces of your life
Slowly meld into a lumpy whole.
You swallow hard and move on knowing
That this too should pass
But you are changed forever
With fewer teeth and another battle scar
Situated right where you least wanted it.