You Tripped Poem by C Richard Miles

You tripped and tumbled down that slippery slope
Which lay in wait, agape before your feet.
Did you not see that slyly hidden hole,
That trick, that cunning catch which I had set?
Did you not guess that grasping gravity
Would still exert its fatal force on you?
Perhaps you thought that Newton had it wrong
And that the converse of his laws was true:
Inevitability, the apple,
Would not dropp down to earth, but rise and leap
To settle on Elysian clouds of bliss.
So looming futures seem intent to keep
Their brooding shadows to themselves, remote
From your reality and thus your smile
Reveals perhaps an innocence, too fresh;
Or do you double-bluff me, with a guile
That far outstrips your years? Is there a net
Of finest silk invisible to me
That would ensnare me in its poisoned trap?
The biter bit, is that my destiny?
Or shall we compromise and call it pax?
For sleight of hand from each of us might make
A settlement, which binds us both so strong
That even death itself our bonds won’t break.