The Future’s Never What Just Happened

Who knows what to do with themselves,
Whenever the worst possible
Outcome of a set collection
Is also clearly most likely?

The worst is hard and unpleasant
To prepare for, and usually
Your preparation’s a failure.
Hoping for the best is madness,

Past a certain outcome threshold
Of sinking probability,
But what that exact threshold is,
Where hope becomes madness, who knows?

Denial is the strategy
Chosen most frequently. The end
You know is the most likely one
Isn’t worth the waste of your thought.

Actually, that’s not quite correct.
There’s no pure frequent strategy.
They’re well mixed—preparation, hope,
Denial, scissors, paper, rock—

But the systems of the body,
However homeostatic,
Don’t seem built for finding the Nash
Equilibrium, not even

If there is one. Cease prediction.
Quit ruminating, say some monks,
Who die pursuing discipline.
We say, all sets prove incomplete.