The Oracle

[Hawkman]

Sybil, is your wisdom an illusion
when your riddles indicate delusion?
Supplicants are just confused
by answers that will be misused
to justify a course of action
deleterious to every faction.
Why should anyone who’s not a fool
regard your verse but as a tool
deliberately intended to mislead?
I would not adopt one as a creed
to rule my life;
it only invites strife.
We are the playthings of the gods,
who are well known as vicious sods,
delighting in the lives derailed
when by their fickle will assailed.
It seems quite pointless giving it your all
when everyone’s predestined for a fall,
and in a hundred years or so
who’ll give a damn.

[Jack of Hearts]

Bravo, Hawk.





J

[everyadventure]

A very natural rhythm to this. The only line I stumbled on was "it only invites strife." The ending-- and its deviation from the rhyme scheme-- was wonderfully done. Nice job.

[hillwalker]

I also found the collapse of rhyme at the end signalled much more than just the words employed here to record man's self-importance.

A couple of instances of rhyme over-riding the poem's natural flow - but that's one of my pet hates so I'll not bore you.

H :-)

[AuntShecky]

As much as I hate disagreeing with the ever-astute Mr. Hill, I enjoyed the rhyme, which when done effectively, is often a characteristic of light verse, reinforcing the humor.

Even so, I do object to the choice of the word "sods" as it does seem it was chosen mainly for its rhyme.

What's most effective in this piece are the closing lines, especially the final punchline.

[Hawkman]

Thank'ee, Jack. Glad you enjoyed it.

ea, thanks to you too, I'm glad you enjoyed it. The rhythmic break in the middle was intentional btw, it acts as a pause in what is otherwise a fairly relentless drive in the flow of words.

hill, most gratified you liked what you liked; and sorry you didn't - what you didn't :D You never bore...

Auntie, hello! I'm sorry you object to sods, merely a Britannic English colloquialism and a fairly every-day one, but if your refined sensibilities are offended by it's use, I do apologise. No inference of actual sodomy was intended ;) Think of it in the same way you might consider the famous epitaph inscribed upon a grave stone, "Beneath this sod lies another". Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the rest of it and thanks for defending my little opus against hill's objection to the rhymes :D

Live long and prosper - H