How could I be so wrong
About being so goddamn right
How could I do it for so long
And lose the goddamn fight
.
How could I walk along
The path without my sight
Why hum along to the song
Of the Sirens who smite so quite
.
How could I bang a loyal gong
To the rhythmic staccato of might
And play to only the royal strong
And the changing tunes they write
.
Why do I long to so belong
To the ones who sit so tight
Above the tongues of hangers-on
Who only thirst for height
.
The pyramid that seems to spawn
Keystones of kings, alight
Who roll downhill to the pawns—
Like them--and me--alike
.
Winners and losers start out at dawn
The same and equal, despite
The change they will have undergone
Of lifetimes overnight
.
Abundance and effacement march on
Some accruing, others lost in fright
Once I succumbed to the rites of wrong
I'd lost the goddamn fight
About the Creator
Gerard DiLeo
Retired, not tired. Hippocampus, behave!
Make me rich! https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/
My substrack at https://substack.com/@drdileo
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Comments (6)
Deep stuff, I like it! Yours are always so clever 😁
Well-wrought! A story as old as time where, in perhaps more ways than one, only the names have changed...
Oooo, this was so profound! Loved it!
The only thing that could make this extraordinary poem better is if Leonard Cohen was still alive to sing it. Absolutely, freakin' brilliant, Gerard!
Wonderfully clever with so many truths woven in! I loved the word play there in the sub-title. And that fourth stanza, wow!!
Well said!!