Brevity as Gasps

             Brevity as Gasps

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 

Too seldom women feel themselves like dew

And men less seldom even.  Life cut short

Like lightning is a thought we seldom view

Though close to truth.  A bow at Agincourt

Predicts the doctrine well.  Most men prefer

The lightning image to the dew.  They think

Themselves as power, though maybe more a blur

Of smoke in campfire nights, its acid stink

Is what most are.  A phantom made of fog,

Not even really real, a ghost that blows

But briefly as a snatch of song, a frog

That croaks just once:  most people are just those.

  Consider who you are each early day.

    By noon your breathing might have gone astray.

Phillip Whidden