In the game of life
we move forward, we move back,
take a step forward, slip a step back
in this game of life.
Can’t predict the future:
where we go, tomorrow never knows
striving to make a path, we grow
in this game of life.
From birth, some have a ladder
from their cradle to the last spot
on the board. They never make a slip
in this game of life.
Others are born into a
nest of snakes. Every footstep
slips sideways. Every footstep treachery,
in this game of life.
Getting half-way up the board
snakes up ahead; snakes in the grass.
Can’t know what we didn’t know
in this game of life.
Slithering, sliding, snaking back down
all the way back to the beginning
starting again, striving and striding forward again
in this game of life.