Pachinko

Choices, choices
Where to drop the ball
How fast? Spin?
When you have enough choices
Sometimes you feel like you have more
Control than you really have
Because it's really just physics,
Brownian motion;
And once the ball is gone, it's gone
You reach for your drink and wait
As the ball bounces off one pin left
And down, another right and down,
The ball freshly cast, reflecting the blue and red lights of the parlor, going where it goes

We all did this,
Did many of the things you did,
Some the same, others different by degrees
But the pins bounced us back to the middle,
A place they never took you
There's a reason they say that's the way the ball bounces

But there's more, and you know that.

Last night I went to the pool with Lovey
And it was empty and Lovey wanted us to snorkel
So we paddled around a deserted pool,
Lovey following me as the sun set
Violet beyond the palms
And it was him and I and we were happy

And I've had more of those days then you did
And some of that's because of how the ball bounced
And some of that's because of the the choices you made
And it's all unimportant today,
You landed where you landed

But along the way you had friends, family, a son, women who
Loved you,
You saw the same sun and moon I saw, walked the same ground,
Breathed the same air,
Moved in the same space and did the best you could,

And hopefully, where you are, you know this
So sleep now, it's okay, we're all still here

Just sleep