Living And Dying On The Cutting Room Floor Poem by Raj Dronamraju

What starts out as inspirational, role model-ish, cool, archetypal
Ends up as parody in the end
Discarded on the cutting room floor

Bring me trips to failure
Bring me respect to derision over cycles of time
Bring me blueberry gelato and more of the same

What started out as illustrious, respected, both feared and in demand
Ends up as parody in the end
On everyone's blocked number list

Bring me the steady drip of permanently unresolved unfairness
Bring me the passing out of fame at a hostile party
Pappy's in the hornet's nest, no one is expected to rescue him

On the cutting room floor
She lays in a quilt sewn up equally in life and death
And cannot hear simplicity

Down there under the rule of the axe blade
The terminal keeper of seconds
Is resolute in his dispensation of fickle chronology