artistry issued opening gauntlet
double mindedness splitting self at core
certain to write wherever i’m taunted
poems duel high noon by pistol or sword
for sake of verse, i settle the difference
preserving the ancient gentleman’s art
words stake their twenty paces position
soon one shall be felled by another’s dart
with stroke of pen, is delivered the blow
those stanzas have seen their final hour
the mired writer must finally know
which lines were designed to come to power
predictability will have no fuel
when it’s time for dialogues to duel
