If You Wait Long Enough By the River...

I had read the words of Sun Tzu

that say that if you wait long enough

on the bank of a river you’ll see

the dead body of your enemy float by.

And watching the sampan bobbing

on the waters of the Yangtze River,

I gasped and immediately knew

that onboard was the corpse of my foe

on his terminal journey.

I should have been glad or relieved

to be rid of my nemesis at last

but - shock and horror – I noticed

that I wasn’t  on the river bank

and the name on the coffin was mine.

As the funereal sampan sank

to the bottom of the river Yangtze

I reflected on the life that I’d lived,

selfish, thoughtless and corrupt,

and realised with grim certainty

that my worst enemy had been me.

© Luigi Pagano 2017