Failure to launch

Cleopatra was lover to

Caesar and Anthony too,

She ruled half the world,

dressed in turquoise and blue.

And the skeptics who tried

and failed Cleopatra to woo

predicted her downfall

and claimed her a

‘Failure to launch’.

Joan of Arc, stripped the bark

From the deep rooted tree of convention,

And nobody watching her

Ever guessed her intention,

But she remained satisfied

Left to her own invention,

And the doubters said, watch, her certain

‘Failure to launch’.

Mother Theresa came good in Calcutta,

that city of lepers and slums,

Never knew mathematics,

but was a past master of sums.

She lived with the dregs, the harlots,

the down and out bums.

And the sisters said guilty, guilty of

‘Failure to launch.

Elizabeth the second ruled

For a lifetime or more,

And many detractors decreed her

a failure for sure.

Her courtesans claimed she was

Little more than a whore,

And told all the Commonwealth, merely a

‘Failure to launch.’

And I hear there’s a lady

Who lives in a riverside lane,

Who is purely a winner and winner

And winner again.

And some people tell her

Her efforts are surely in vain,

And wrongly predict her a guaranteed

‘Failure to launch.

Dedicated to ladies who believe in themselves. per exampla: Mad maddie!