CHAMPION

The crowd loves
the defeated champion.
Before the champion
lost, he never
had their love.
It took defeat
to bring them
to their feet
and cheer for
the fallen champion.

OH, SURE

Is there an old man out there who wonders
whether he has wasted his life? Oh, sure,
it’s easy enough to persuade him
he hasn’t lived in vain; he has dependents;
he has baggage; he has a legacy, whether fictive
or financial; he still believes the gods of chance
and the muse of poetry are the same Aphrodite
who tempted King David, lover of love and wine
and song, the shepherd boy who wrote the psalms.