Steel Our Hearts! Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

de profundis

I read books all the livelong day,
and find myself burning in water
and drowning in flame

doing as well as I can but doing no good!

I'm in a fine frenzy in this day of the locust!
I wage war against those merry tyrants of
good intentions whose book of dreams
allow no elegy for the southern drawl!

I ain't no Job! I ain't the first dissident!
Hell, I'm not even a white European male
whose forebears predicted the impending
suicide of Western civilization!

Give me my druthers-
seaspray and whisky, Shakespeare's bawdy,
and the company of cheerful ladies!
Let me swear like a trooper
and praise famous men!
Let my soldiers steel their hearts
and bring order to lawless roads!
Let us wash our spears in fire and ice!
Let our spirits soar in blue skies
from here to Timbuktu!

Let us steel our hearts!