a rapaciously good natured villain…

“a rapaciously good natured villain“

no answer once again; why not spend
this night disarticulating exchanges &
trying to pinpoint everything wrong
with this picture? hearts have fractured,
healed, broken & healed again. junkies
learn faster than this.

all this time looking across the table at
no one, i’ve been conversing with walls,
ceiling, getting opinion from the floor
(stepped on repeatedly, last i’d heard.)
they all got real fuckin’ problems & told me
to piss off; might’ve called me a cunt.

few surviving members in that last box of
condoms say everything anyone needs to
know about sudden changes in my station
& title. my good villain never flies a false flag,
preferring negotiation to bloodshed. i’d let
you invade whenever the mood struck but i
didn’t reach out until just too late.

whatever prompted you to call out to
remind the captain of his freshest defeat,
even demure in tone & word, drove him
up the mainmast. scanning the horizon for
your shadow, issuing orders to the crew
“we move into open visual contact at first
light so that the scientists can study this
most curious situation.”

i’ll be here at the fort practicing my just
right smile & graciousness in temporary
defeat. all the same, if i’m stepping
back, it’s only to take a bigger step in
another direction. they don’t call me
fool because i’m afraid to be wrong in
public.