Chances
By Chago Zapata
Managing Editor, NCO Journal
June 17, 2024
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When chances come your way, don’t take them.
By someone else the spoils be taken.
If you lead a boring life, don’t go.
If you don’t, how will you ever know?
You live your life but once in time.
Can you afford to let it pass you by?
Why don’t you eat the fruit and drink the wine?
Forget your fears, your doubts and try.
Leap into the unknown, brave the tide.
Don’t let fear control your stride.
Within each moment, secrets hide,
those who dare will come alive.
There is no bravery without fear.
Where dread ghosts linger, always near.
Stay the voices, take the plunge.
Chances missed you can’t expunge.
In shadows deep of might have been,
lie the echoes of an untrod path.
Shall you dwell at the cavern’s rim,
or chance the sunlit trail’s uncertain aftermath?
Seconds tick away, time waits for none,
relentless whispers urge you on.
Seize the day, the moment ’til it’s done,
before the fleeting chance is gone.
Blank canvas, brush in hand,
what scenes will you dare paint?
Bold, bright hues and efforts grand,
or faded colors, weak restraint?
How sometimes we regret,
opportunities that fly.
Things we wish we could forget,
or a chance for one more try.
Fear mutters, bullets zip and battle cries,
the warrior spirit will arise.
It thrives on chances, tough and raw,
rise and fight or be swallowed by the maw.
With body armor heavy and spirits high,
seize the chance to do or die.
For valor comes not from the fray,
but in the choices made each day.
So, charge ahead, keep goals in sight,
don’t let the fear within you rage.
For those who in the shadows fight,
turn every risk into a stage.
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