Mocked By Deaf Fame Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

At length, from strength, life's leaf raft craft decays,
old year clocks out as new one dons fresh frock
beneath midwinter quilt that timely frays
as time steals time from time ticktock, ticktock.
Wheel turns, no weal returns. Each piper pays
'as palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs. In dock,
no sense to stand on ceremony, way's
set on dead-end course, bolt shot, in hock.
From doubts confirmed and bridges burned we gaze
on unkept resolutions choked half-cock,
no guarantees to free from perjured phrase,
no magic key to free lost soul from stocks,
with feckless tittle-tattle deathwatch beetled,
shell-shocked by shadow battle, faith defoetalled.

One more year added to too many lost
highlights blind errors, terrors taking toll
of health as stricken sojourners count cost
of squandered chances, unaccomplished goal.
'This petty pace' creeps, weeps defeat as frost
bite gangrenes both limbs, wisdom, will to bowl
another over ere all's over, crossed
by karma, all trace swallowed whole.
As phantom players cast from cast, trash tossed,
downcast, outcast from fiction's jeux de rôle,
all slip from mortal scene sans stele embossed.
Flame's track lacks wherewithal for more than 'came,
went, soon forgotten, name mocked by deaf fame.'