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Tu ne quaesieris...
Horace, Odes 1, 11

Don't try palmistry.  Don't
	dig the I Ching
		out to enquire for you


or me what's in reserve,
	kept to the end.
		Know it's unlucky to pry!

How much better to live,
	Leuconoe,
		Through an uncounted time,

God's good gift to us, not
	knowing if more
		winters will come our way

or if this is the last,
	throwing it's all
		hard on our Norfolk coast.

Think straight, letting the wine
	breathe for an hour,
		pruning that rampant vine,

hope, well back, so it won't
	shatter the glass
		roof of our little room.

Time runs selfishly off
	while we debate
		life.  So it's best to pick

Now's fruit now, and to trust
	"then", if at all,
		only because we must.


			JONATHAN TRENCH