#: The last will be first and the first will be last. ~Q65


this is often hard to hear.
in the short term it sounds even patronizing:
insulting the poor, the loser, the
marginalized;
the unlucky, the careless, the
victim.


for such a saying requires a longer view;
a deeper horizon and the steely courage
to sail toward it.


many get lost in the pursuit of,
or the desire to hold onto,
being first.


no one fights to be last.


but it is often these at the end of
the line, those inhabitors of
the barrel's bottom, who
find themselves with furrowed
brow scanning a horizon
as yet undefined and, with
nothing to lose, discover the
living secret of being last.