pretty shirt

The mithril shirt the Mouth of Sauron bore
was plainly Frodo's, on whom they all dote
Evoking stories heard here long before,
of Jacob's favorite's many-colored coat.
"Bad artists borrow what great artists steal"
At least that's what I've read Picasso taught.
He knew the innovation's no less real
for all that some components could be bought.
All MiddleEarth awaited Tolkien's pen
to share what he had glimpsed thus far alone
The War and coming of the Age of Men
as Frodo helped put Strider on his throne.

Old elements are there to tease apart
but juxtaposing them's a minstrel's art.

old debts

The heir of Isildur called back the host
Who'd turned their coats an Age of Man before.
The Dark Lord's minions fled before such ghosts
belatedly reporting to wage war.
This Shadow Army came with sword and spear
but never got to demonstrate they'd bite.
Their enemies that didn't die of fear
cast down their arms and ran away in fright.
The ships of Umbar bore them all aboard
to turn the tide when everything looked grim.
When Dernhelm's thrust unstrung the Morgul lord

few save the Hobbit spared an eye for "him".

For those who long ago had broken faith

the call to serve's atonement for a wraith.

themes

Twin packs of suitors, bookends to the tale;
one woos her cousin, one sought Helen's hand.
At court in Ithaka, they're doomed to fail
Penelope's true love has come to land.
The oath that linked the first pack launched a war
Ten years of strife and camping in the mud.
This second crew are bound for something more;
they'll seal their brotherhood in mingled blood.
The twain tied with Odysseus' thread
our bard grants him alone enduring joy.
Achilles, shining bright, is ten years dead
before he hugs his wife and strapping boy.
One hero's epic if the reader'll look
spans twenty years in Homer's double book.

patterns

Laomedon was fool enough to cheat
the gods who'd built his city's fabled wall.
He died before the story was complete;
Astyanax would see Troy's epic fall.
The timeframe of the gods seems long to Man
who wants to see cause lockstep with effects.
It took blind Homer to portray the plan
How grueling War ensues from hot-blood Sex.
Fair Aphrodite knows she's Ares' twin
allied against the fractious Argive host.
but Pallas and her Ithakan still win;
Our bard knows Wisdom counts, and counts the most.
No education's worth the time it took
if it can't grant a classic a fair look.

beauty

Immortal Thetis must be just as young
today as when that golden apple spurred
three goddesses of whom such paeans are sung
to squabble for a trifle so absurd.
The mooncalf brother Hector would berate
who tends the flocks, 'cause that's all that he can
is no way fitted to adjudicate
which one deserves the fondest praise of Man.
Blind Homer knows which goddess he would choose
whose cultured conversation keep him hot
to whom Athenians still offer dues
but Paris voted for the Cypriot.
Still Thetis grieves; Achilles' death still hurts
and Zeus won't leave off sniffing at her skirts.

emmisary

Age-long, the balrog fell and Gandalf clung
in mortal combat under MiddleEarth.
An epic too few minstrels would have sung,
out of proportion to the subject's worth.
Sent back to do Iluvatar's behest,
reborn, a wizard greater than before,
distracting Sauron from the Hobbits' quest,
flamboyant general of the sham war.
Faux-elf, who wields the greatest Elvish ring
diverting Mordor from the Free World's bet,
wise midwife to the Fourth Age and its King
lured armies far from Frodo and his threat.
In Moria, he fell to rise again
This subtle author of the Age of Men.

senile disinhibition II

With passing time, Trump's flailings get more wild;
each lie more garish than what came before.
As disinhibited as any child,
but he's empowered to make peace, or war.
The Montenegrin minister's a gent
who shrugged to be so rudely shoved aside.
A Texan would have decked our president;
three courts in five would find him justified.
The world awaits the signal from Mike Pence
that he concedes it's gone on long enough.
To make the case for Trump's incompetence
with what he's done of late, won't be too tough.
But Pence's mis-placed tribal loyalty
condemned he world to Trump's senility.