The man on the corner

So many things await us
           just around the corner :
the summer, the winter,
           spring, happiness,
a disappointment, even death
           or love or a dagger
to the heart

Everything awaits us
           around one corner or another
in the great labyrinth
           of corners that is
this life that deals
           daily with chance

In a story by Borges
           the man on the corner
with a raised hand.
           So many daggers in so many
contrived forms
           They await us
in the lethal labyrinth
           in which aimlessly
we wander
           with frayed threads

John Lyons