Each of us can, by ploy or gambit, most naturally gain the advantage...

When I have difficulty breading
and racking cough
(memento of my young days)
bends me to earth
like thinking on the past;
when even the doctor despairs,
and inside my chest
all is mud and slush,
like a dirt road reduced to mush,
the do I recall
the lovely days,
days of sun and gentle airs.
The year has more of them -
far more -
than days of murk and drizzle.

And, oddly enough,
my cough subsides
and a fresh breeze stirs
in my bronchial tubes,
as if I had breathed the air
of water-meadows where,
back home
we drove the herds.
when I am bowed beneath the weight
of unsuccess
my soul despairs,
and I am prey to fears and
sleepless nights,
then do I recall
the good people,
those close to me
and those not so close,
all those with clean consciences,
like fighters in a noble cause.

The earth has more of them -
far more -
than of careerists,
of grabbers
and gabblers.

When I consider this
my heart grows light -
not entirely, perhaps,
but at least calm.
Then I have no wish to past off,
but to go on living,
enjoying the earth and the sky.

Fantastic Bacalao...