When your favorite poems Fail to move you When your sacred verses Cannot elevate you When even The deadly modern drugs Do nothing to you And you are still left Wondering How to make sense Of the baffling Events and Behavior of people Around you And you have nowhere to turn Here is a name, My friend, Who may assist: Boethius. His life story Is his message. A Roman Senator By occupation A philosopher By temperament. Powerful and rich With a beautiful wife Children and large estates, One day everything was stripped from him. The ruler was displeased. Several rough guards marched Into the Senator’s home And took him to a dungeon Where they would carry out The orders of the ruler: Bludgeon the prisoner to death. While he pondered The misery of his fate And tried to make sense of his life He saw a majestic woman With luminous eyes In his cell. She radiated benevolence And introduced herself As Lady Philosophy. She warned Boethius Of her rival Lady Fortune And her Wheel of Fortune Which placed you on top One moment and Without warning or cause Flung you To the bottom The next Lady Fortune was as fickle As she was seductive. Boethius must develop immunity And resist her, Warned Lady Philosophy. It helped Boethius To reconcile to his predicament And to write What became a widely read book Throughout Europe For the next few centuries, The Consolation of Philosophy. So when Lady Fortune Comes a calling Remember the lesson: Her munificence Is as illusory as her negligence. Little we do Can prevent The pain Or the joy We are subject to. But Lady Philosophy Helps us to become better Indurated to the turbulence That comes with the turning Of the Wheel of Fortune. Akbar Ahmed 10.27.2019 Washington, DC.