Answers

How could I?
It was you
Or both of us - can't you see?
Doctor Plaxton all over again
No-one
No-one at all
Should expect me to be a martyr.
I'm not that stupid
Or sentimental.
Sentiment breeds weakness
Only the strong survive.
If it had been someone - anyone else -
I would have had to try the same.
Necessity takes no account of
Good times or
Bad times or
Any times at all -
Only results.
I'll admit I was stupid - no -
I mean
Unobservant.
Doing, not thinking.
If I'd just seen that block earlier...!
But damn it, I'll be no Blake
wallowing in guilt.
What's done is done.
That's the end of it.
There are too many disasters
Inevitably waiting to strike
For us to waste time in recriminations
Instead of preparing as best we can
For the next blow of Fate.

-- Kathryn Andersen

(written in response to Sue Bursztynski's "Betrayal")