Law of Unintended Consequences

A Poem about Overcoming Tragedy

How many of us have begun a well-planned path

Believing in one outcome and finding another

How effectively can we predict an aftermath

Before finding our actions have led to the other

There are always things that we cannot predict

That in ignorance we think we see crystal clear

Then someone or something is forced to interdict

It is amazing how a tragedy always travels so near

No one is wise enough to know how everything moves

What things can still go wrong when we least expect

Even together with committees in the same grooves

We can suddenly discover there’s a negative effect

How many times must we all learn the hard lesson?

That even the best-laid plans can often go awry

We stand at the breach with an awful impression

Shouting up to the heavens asking why? then we cry

In those humble moments, We’ve all had to share them

Everything goes wrong and we don’t know what to do

There will be moments of loss, we all must bear them

And together we will all have to learn to get through

So let’s stop thinking we are perfect and understand life

That we can figure it all out when the tragedy comes

Anyone who has lived long enough encounters the strife

Then we realise the numbers added don’t equal the sums

What should give us all courage is that others have known

When the losses have come then the wisdom has grown

We can’t do it alone!