Weaker Than a Woman's Tear

a poem by William P. Meyers


"But I am weaker than a woman's tear …
And skilless as unpracticed infancy."*
The pens and pencils of my youth
Have become atoms and electrons
Internet dust, hidden like dark matter
Buried beneath sedimentary layers
The Cheap mechanical typewriter of college essays
The electric Corona of endless drafts and query letters
The thermal printing, one line of memory Brother
The early PCs with their line printers
Sneaking floppies to an office laser printer
Wordstar, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word
And direct to blog,
Just to prove I am still
"skilless as unpracticed infancy."

What poem can bring peace and justice,
What essay can change a hateful heart?

"Why should I war without the walls of Troy?"**
I can see with Cassandra's eyes:
Three times three Troys buried in dust
Athens and Sparta fighting to mutual death.
Cities rise and fall
Nations rise and fall
Empires rise and fall
Until the machines come.
The machines destroy all,
Down to the last grasshopper
And last blades of grass.

I am cursed
I can see with Cassandra's eyes.

*Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida Act I, Scene I, lines 9 & 12
**line 2

Copyright 2014 by William P. Meyers, all rights reserved