Opportunity by George Lucian Crary

They call me opportunity;
But once in a life time we meet,
As I hasten through your community
I walk on the toes of my feet,

And those wings on my feet that you see,
Are to show you how quick I pass by,
Unless by the hair you now seize me,
When past you I quickly will fly.

Though again for the chance you may yearn,
When once you have let me pass by,
You will find that I never return
But onward, straight onward I fly.

The wise Greeks a statue did raise,
And on it this lesson engraved,
That the traveler upon it might gaze
And from disappointment be saved.

Then let us this lesson receive,
And then we shall never regret,
Or will never have reason to grieve,
That we did not seize her when we met.

From: From: Crary, Oringe Smith and Crary, George Lucian, Poetical Works of Oringe Smith Crary and George Lucian Crary, 1914, Self Published: New York, p. 96.
(https://archive.org/stream/poeticalworksofo00crar#page/96/mode/2up)

Date: 1914

By: George Lucian Crary (1837-1923)