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.