"Kismet's game" [rubai]

All struggle & fret in youth & age
a few may strive to glimpse what page
fell destiny in secret writes --
whose furtive word brings bliss or rage

The darkling ink of kismet's game
confounds the wise   (what use is fame
or fortune lasting   but one blink?)
erasing soon both face & name

Treading a walk our feet require
we traipse from cradle toward the pyre
why are these feet so keen to trace
a line that wends from wood to fire?

I think my only comfort's laughter
was he drunk? the madcap drafter
of these ludicrous lines I mouth?
I'll get that playwright in the hereafter!