Dear Reader

What could be a better example 
of free will, you might think, than pausing, 
turning, raising your arm and reaching
for this book? Yet, dear reader,
you’ll never know how much planning
went into having this slim volume
not just in the right shop, ready for 
the day you, passing, stopped and browsed,
but on that shelf, in that position,
where yours eyes would fall upon it 
as if by chance. For, dear reader, 
everything’s fate in retrospect
and you may think that you chose me
but, darling reader, I chose you.

---

Mark Kirkbride

Mark Kirkbride is the author of The Plot Against Heaven, Game Changers of the Apocalypse (a semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Awards 2019) and Satan’s Fan Club.