OPPORTUNITY

     

            The knock at door set my heart astir.

            It sounded urgent, so I asked, "Who's there"

            A voice replied, "Opportunity, Sir.

            You've been waiting for me. Open if you care."

            I opened my door in answer to that knock,

            Reluctant to leave my warm easy chair;

            But all that I met were the creaks and a shock,

            For there was no one outside but the empty air;

 

            Just the weedy lawn and a rusty hoe,

            A rusty shovel and the crumbling fence

            I abandoned to the weather long ago

            All staring at me with mocking insolence.

            In anger I asked them, "Who knocked? Was it you?"

            "We did," said the shovel, and the lawn, and the hoe!