No Fair Is Not Fair

Of course there is a world out there,
World not at all to do with us.
Things fall in the field of our games

Not at all to do with the games—
Rain, snow, hail (we have rules for those),
Odd bits of wind-caught trash, stray birds,

All kinds of small, lost lives, in fact—
It’s not like we don’t know. We know.
But what winds and chance blow in frame

Aren’t and can’t be part of the game,
At most a tale told of a break
In the game, the stray dog that ran

Out on the grass and caught the ball
In its teeth and ran off with it.
Games go on. Games start and games end.

Of course there is a world out there
That breaks in and breaks up our games.
That world can’t be played through a game.

That world is not part of our game.
You can’t frame that world or give it
Rules, not by the rules of the game.