thus said the prophet

 we make our choices with honest conviction

and are persuaded that an angry curse

is just a matter for some plangent verse

or else results from sloppy bad male diction

all our desire is life with little friction

and we can't understand how the converse

happens how all our actions make things worse

just why the happy ending's only fiction

to tell this story would take me too long

so it must be cut short and that's a shame

since all the world is hanging on the tale

still all in all what hurts makes us more strong

and better able soon to win the game

while early victors in the end must fail