As in “as soon as possible.”
Which could not be confused
With no later than when doable,
Lest my inner clock become bemused.
This Distraction woven by the siren’s call:
A motif of Rationalization and Denial . . .
A cunning entrapment before the fall . . .
A snare honed and primed by my disease’s guile.
It invited me to ponder the idea of “when,”
Though it seemed not “if” could I assume,
I realized in fact to err would be often,
This demanded my new outlook, an old one subsume.
The suggestion I heard was to waste no time
About this business of survival
This from those who had made the climb
Out of their bottom before my arrival.
By neither the harder nor softer way
I learned that “Promptly” meant “now.”
Thus for my wrong, promptly I would “pay.”
“When” now quite clear, the uncertainty only “how.”
John W.
