My Inescapable Fate

I tried to write a poem about my astrological sign

and how for half my life I had it wrong

how I thought I was a Sagittarius 

which apparently I can’t even spell

I was born on the cusp, right at the end of November

and every time I read the paper

I turned to the horoscope and thought

I don’t have any coworkers 

I am not forgiving, spontaneous, or “fun”

I mostly liked to sit in my room

and think about the Baltimore Orioles

and listen to Aztec Camera and Psychedelic Furs

and imagine I was in a band 

which is by the way why U2 is the perfect name

I devoted much time to an endless game

the name of which I have forgotten 

the purpose was to teach the player

how to explore and colonize the world

which given the circumstances into which I was born

seems like an unnecessary lesson

one day someone who loved me

asked me exactly when it happened

and drew a complex chart

and I was told I belonged to the sign

known for believing one never belongs

anyway I tried to write this poem but could not escape

what I call ancestor sadness 

the sense that the more I tried not to lie the more I did

I guess you could say that was my inescapable fate

but only in the poem I did not show to anyone