Not Bloody Up To It This Time Around

—after Archilochos, poet and mercenary 

 

[MS SHOWING CONSIDERABLE WEAR AND TEAR] 

 

[ ] 

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by the way [far?] 

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[ ] [ ] flung side

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ditched [ ] [ ] rusty 

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shield going [where to?] pieces still 

 

[MS QUALITY RAPIDLY FADING] 

 

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[ ] wait [for?] better war[ri?][or] 

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[ ] poet? 

 

[MS WHOLLY IN SHAMBLES] 

 

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Oxymoronic

--after Heraclitus, again 

 

Nothing remains 

Unchanged, no matter how 

 

Many times 

You have heard it 

 

Uttered by the well-

Meaning masses,

 

By this babbling

Brook, it bears

 

Repeating just the same. 

 

 

 

 

Not So Forward Looking Thinking Man's Poet

 

Here’s to him 

Who always thought 

He was a giant 

 

Step ahead of those backward 

Looking others who remained 

Glued to his miniscule 

 

Frame frozen in their rear- 

View mirrors yet wondering 

Naught one bit how 

 

Everything fits, even all

Our miserable misfits. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Payoff

 

What is worth 

Noting down 

May or may not be 

 

Worth the price to pay for winning 

Poems, though you’ll never know 

The odds if you don’t 

 

Place your bets. 

 

 

Life Coordinates

 

Where you find yourself 

Now, the only thing

 

That can bother you is already 

Out of reach behind you— 

 

Just don’t turn around,

Or you’ll lose it.