It is such a curse to be competent

Cruelties claim those who seem omnipotent

As those perceived as the cream of the crop

Make best oblations when fall comes to drop.

When burn comes to blaze, when push comes to shove

Not for pity, mercy or even love

Is mighty spared; instead despair the strong

At being sacrificed to save the throng.

When all are sinking, the ones who float best

Are sent to swim, ship space kept for the rest

And yet, better chances of survival

Do not guarantee a safe arrival.

I’ve often been victim of such logic

Left mid-sea because it was strategic

Then expected to feel somehow flattered

Like my reaching shore is all that mattered.

But it took all I have to remain brave

But I suffered to breach wave after wave

But the jetsam I found was not a boat

But when I needed mounds, I got a mote.

At times, not everyone can be rescued

But odds aren’t often, in my favour, skewed

It’s not the lofty status it would seem

To drown in fervently held high esteem.