04-04-2017, 01:58 AM
The Other Half of the Battle
is the grin beneath
your mirrored faceplate.
Sun Tzu would have seen
the irony in my artless approach.
Knowing is the cobra’s sway
before the strike,
the flash of lightning,
and the whole
of battle—not the half.
I weep that before I rose
from this table, I had already lost.
You have given me Slaughter
and little else.
is the grin beneath
your mirrored faceplate.
Sun Tzu would have seen
the irony in my artless approach.
Knowing is the cobra’s sway
before the strike,
the flash of lightning,
and the whole
of battle—not the half.
I weep that before I rose
from this table, I had already lost.
You have given me Slaughter
and little else.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson