Dice

A Villanelle

by Cristina Nehring (August 2024)

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To the gambler gods we are but dice,
Playthings for three minutes or four or five,
To roll in each direction no matter the price.
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To toss into a corner, to lose along a roadside;
Whatever our pertinent plaints:
To the gambler gods we are but dice.
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Save a life here, expunge one there,
No matter what we do, the playful pieties will continue
To roll in all directions no matter what the price.
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We order and order a life from disorder,
We plead and we plan, we stomp and we strut, but nevertheless
To the gambler gods we are but dice.
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We imagine, what hubris, our destiny to us,
But neither will nor character shall stop those daemons above
To roll in any direction no matter the price.
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Full of sound and fury is our comportment;
Full of prayers and poses and insults and assaults.
But to the gambler gods we are but dice:
They roll in any direction whatever the price.
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