Cold Comfort

by Mike

The worst is each successive day’s the worst–
If there’s a next time, I’ll try dying first.
And if I first said that nine lives ago,
And each successive life built greater woe?
I know the Second Law is no one’s friend–
But still, it claims that there will come an end.

A small revision:

Cold Comfort

The worst is each successive day’s the worst–
If there’s a next time, I’ll try dying first.
And if I first said that nine lives ago,
And each successive life knew greater woe?
I know the Second Law is no one’s friend–
But still, it claims that there will come an end.

5 comments

1 Mary Alexandra Agner { 10.21.11 at 8:53 pm }

AWESOME!

2 Paranoid_you_bet { 10.22.11 at 6:05 am }

How very peculiar… This one just put itself to music as well. It will actually be the best song… A Waitsian 1 – 3 – 4 – 5b slow burn blues vamp. Prepare for Sunday… It could be very interesting.

3 Mike { 10.22.11 at 10:12 am }

Given the poem’s content, it seems strange to say I’m looking forward to it – but nevertheless, I am.

4 Tad { 10.22.11 at 10:49 am }

“Knew” works. It slides the line forward to “greater woe,” which is where you want it to go.

5 Mike { 10.22.11 at 12:07 pm }

Thanks, Tad. “built” also implies a sense of agency, which the rest of the poem denies.

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