Fabulous
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The ancient Japanese sword-makers bent
Bent, coaxed their steel, more thousands of plies, than
Rehearsing swordsmen slashed their blades. This meant
Swords cured stronger than a Samurai man
Could ever be. The metal strength was made
From all those flexes but perhaps not just
Those turns of alloy shape. Each would-be blade
Was turned against such failures as weak rust
By something else the makers did. They told
Each other fables, fables, fables while
They tortured steel. Perhaps these stories rolled
Some wizardry, some story-telling trial
Hard kneaded into them. We want to feel
That such ingredients might hex the steel.
