ONCE I WAS THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE

The fledgling Cobra

Thought himself

King of the Earth, master of

All he surveyed

Yet a shock was in store

When on an otherwise

Run of the mill day

In the near distance

He heard an unfamiliar

Chattering and chortling

 

Paying the jabbering

Little heed heralded

The King’s undoing

For the conjurer,

The hypnotist Mongoose

Was on his case

 

Under the spell of

The virtuoso’s gaze

Now rooted to the spot

A sitting duck

Summary justice

Helpless, tossed skyward

Then devoured

 

What a place of

Boundless promise

Was Mother Earth

When I was blind and

Unaware of life’s

Falsities as to

Believe I was

The focal point,

Had dominion

Over all things

 

That was when

I was unsullied

Still to be forged

Case hardened

Recklessly planished,

Into the finished article

 

That was when

I believed I was

Indestructible

As is the way of things

In the midst of childhood