Lucky Sonnet

I lie awake like Larkin in the night

and feel, just for a moment, Aubade’s dread;

but something else, insistent in my head,

demands I should instead regard the light:-

So far, I have been lucky: I have not

been beaten, raped or murdered in my bed.

I have not been impaled and left for dead.

I have not been beheaded, stabbed or shot.

So far, thank god, I have not had to flee

from torturers, starvation or disease.

I have not begged for mercy on my knees.

I have not been enslaved, or drowned at sea.

The ceiling fades: I thank each lucky star;

I really have been fortunate thus far.

 

 

 

  

 

 

PS Larkin’s ‘Aubade’ is here.