Without a Plan

The needle horizontal, long past the only filling station,
Finally at the beach, water abounds, but not a drop to drink,
Remoteness reached at last with credit card in hand,
The holiday cut short by rude awareness, only cash is taken.
Getting home to find that half the needed groceries
Are still sitting on the shelves at the supermarket.
Time not spent on planning is eventually preempted by
The jingling of a lighter purse and hindsight lamentation.

A rollercoaster ride to make your stomach flip,
Dow Jones the only measure of a coveted stability.
Invest, invest, invest, the captain hollers from the deck
As the leaky, antiquated ship cuts through the briny sea,
Capricious master of our fate, serendipity.

Non-strategic mating to ingratiate insistent selves,
Then after-plans converting any precious soul conceived
To fetus, produce of the womb, an accident, expendable.
An afterthought is looming, first birthday coming soon.
Commitment to expedience, convenience and freedom
Will extricate the gloom.

Rambling in stylish prose, concealing pointlessness,
Unchartered narratives leading back to repetition,
A quote out of context to accommodate the narrow thought,
Blind convincing blind of their 20/20 vision.
No mention of His name, much less the Plan to facilitate
The advancement of a world civilization.

Plans deemed irrelevant, especially on a cosmic scale,
Leave naysayers puzzled as to why our history indicates
A spiral tendency from age to age towards luminosity.
They cling to the mirage of a human-made solution,
Optimism exercised to hold despair at bay,
Arms extended into darkness, not knowing who’s at either end,
Grasping vague assurances that help is on the way.

Nebulous the future if strategic change is demonized,
Life a tedious task with few perks to keep us going,
The end a mockery of the energy expired,
No recall of the journey, no hope to reach a promised shore,
All for naught the suffering, the anguish and the knowing,
Evolution run amok, the rebound of the dinosaur.