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This Title Makes No Claim
A captain of industry builds the world's largest skyscraper.
His critics contend he's just a robber baron
creating his own grandiose monument.
Ten men die building it.
A nurse soothes a terminally ill child into falling asleep.
Something is bothering her and she has to look
at the child's medical chart.
She forgot his name.
A student stays after class with his classics professor.
They discuss the universal appeal and today's relevance
of the writers Plutarch, Homer and Ovid.
They talk in Latin.
A cattle king yells into a canyon, "This is my domain!"
The resulting echoes, each resounding quieter than the last,
mark the legacy of his reign.
Soon all is silent again.
A chalk artist draws some of history's greatest masterpieces
on a marble sidewalk for the pleasure
of tourist passersby.
The sky above turns from blue to gray.
A doctor decides to set aside his lucrative practice
and make a difference in a third world country for a year.
He is placed in March of 1994.
Rwanda is his destination.
An ailing father leaves his footprints by the sea's edge.
He smiles ruefully at his son who uses his smaller feet
to save them from the waves.
The boy succeeds for a while.
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Brilliant.
Thanks Sir. |
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Comment by: Arley - 2008-10-16 09:58
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| I see this was done a while back and I somehow missed it. Very moving, Andy, brilliant isolated zingers, and an all around great piece of work! |
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| I dont have words...understood what it takes to win :) really beutiful...will read all your stuff soon! |
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Comment by: alien Online- 2008-08-14 08:04
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I'm going to say this first and then the better part.
I would have put 'by the sea's edge' rather than the sea's side in the last stanza.
That's all for that.
As far as the depth and SIGNIFICANCE of this piece is concerned, this is amazing and brilliant.
It's a poem of true importance and I can honestly say that it's possibly one of the best poems I've ever read. It's quite exciting to suddenly be faced with something of this magnitude in a poetry contest I have organised - it makes all the hard work worth it.
Thank you very much for contributing this poem. Now go and get it published... |
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Comment by: Mick - 2008-08-12 22:16
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| I like the title. The way we have no claim upon this earth is very well reinforced in your characters situations... Well done. :) |
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