One Good Turn

Gold cherry

By luigi_pagano

Tue, 31 Oct 2023
  • 2322 reads
19 comments
 

One good turn deserves another
and more often than not we comply
but what if we suffer an injustice?
What's the most appropriate reply?

Do we then turn the other cheek,
respond to insult without retort
or demand an eye for an eye
as ideological hardliners exhort?

It's known that a worm will turn
if stepped on far too often
and it is unrealistic to expect
that its attitude will soften

through the fear of being cut 
in half by the blade of a spade.
Its resolve is bound to harden
to show it's no longer afraid.

Some species can regenerate
even when cut in two pieces.
Despite intensive decimation
their existence never ceases.

Our effort to get rid of them
may unintentionally affect
the highly precarious survival
of every other insect.

An incipient war's requisite
is that opponents must manage
to resolve their differences
without collateral damage.

 

 

© Luigi Pagano 2023

Certificate U
Poem
Mutevoli pensieri
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by marandina on

That's a powerful ending with your final stanza, Luigi. The meter and rhyme is very nicely done, of course. Expertly executed, sir.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thank you kindly, sir, for the positive appraisal and my grateful thanks to ABC's editors for the welcome cherries.

Best, Luigi.

 

Submitted by Penny4athought on

So well said Luigi and in rhyme too! Very profound ending- wish the leaders on this planet could understand that and abide.

Penny4athought

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

My sentiments exactly, JoAnne. So glad we are in agreement.

Best wishes, Luigi x

 

Submitted by Turlough on

This is full of your usual wonderful rhyme and rhythm but the final verse took me by surprise, much like when you're watching something amusing and nice on television and you change channels to suddenly discover the awful news of the day.

Extremely well done Luigi. 

 

Turlough

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thank you, Turlough. That's life: one moment we are complacently living, lulled by a sense of security when something unexpectedly happens and we are shocked.by what goes on around us.

Luigi

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Luigi, what a brilliant poem! Every line could mean two things. No one could be offended, yet it contains so much wisdom and advice

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Dear Di, as a peacenik of long standing I have been giving this advice for many years but it has fallen on deaf ears.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Impressively done Luigi, and I hope the advice in the final verse comes about soon.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

I wouldn't hold my breath, Claudine. No one listens to old fogeys like me.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Kind of you to say so, Jacques, thank you.

Best, Luigi

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Luigi's wise poem is Pick of the Day! Please do share if you can

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Delighted and honoured by this accolade, Di. Grateful thanks.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Such wise words and so neatly and artfully arranged. The age old problem of how to right wrongs without doubling up on the wrong or being trampled all over. We've still some evolving to do.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

They are, as Hamlet remarked 'words, words, words' and meaningless if they fall on deaf ears, Jane. It has been an old age problem that still persists, as you rightly point out. The Brotherhood of Men has gone out of the window, I'm afraid.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by forest_for_ever on

Powerful, symetrical and fantastic imagery.  Worth a Pick of the Day and a part in any anthology....Luigi strikes again !

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

It is thanks to encouragements like yours, Graham, that I get motivated to aim for improvement in my writing and I am grateful for your continuing support,

Best, Luigi

 

Submitted by Sim on

Hear hear!

Sim

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thanks, Sim.

Best, Luisi