Two Entered the Ring

 

One old grizzled fighter came on strong,

unleashing flurries of punches, landing some.

The younger, fresher one seemed to be biding his time…

The first two rounds went to the seasoned champion.

In the third round, things began to change.

The young man let loose with his wicked jab,

and began to do damage around an older head…

The champion ducked and weaved and dodged,

mostly effective but not every time – and got hit.

He took it like the champ he was, and persevered.

Dodging and weaving, he fired back some punches.

Got warned by the referee – they both did.

But after the fourth round, things looked bleak.

By the fifth and sixth rounds, the challenger was

scoring hits at three times the rate of the champ.

It became inevitable – and a game of survival.

The old champ stayed on his feet by will alone.

In the last two rounds, the old warrior launched

some desperate flurries, even landing a few.

The young strong bull answered back with plenty!

When it finally came to the end, it was with grace.

You saw the young challenger, now the champ,

behaving with an uncanny class, ceasing seconds early,

giving the old warhorse a bow of respect before the bell.

No bloody knockouts here – this was a sporting ballet.

No thrilla in Manila,

no slash-and-burn,

no ear-biting rages,

no TKO in the first round.

This was a contest of gentlemen,

settled like gentlemen.

Doubt there will be another match like this one.

Congrats, Jake Paul.

Well fought, Mike Tyson.

Don’t spend it all in one place (both of you). ;-)

Technology Relativity

 

Once we could be content with cable TV,

passive amusements fed to us repeatedly.

Only interaction was the channel changer,

it was OK to be sleepy dumb consumers.

Then that Internet age came up fast,

we all had to learn new keyboard tasks.

To think and interact and read many screens;

the old world of paper data receding at last.

Forget going out somewhere to fetch a book,

logging into the right website is all it took

to make our world smarter and better and brighter,

colorful images and columns and charts

accessed rapidly to make us all smarter.

Alas! Many smaller companies became providers,

some unreliable and spotty with coverages.

The more addicted we became to the ‘Net,

the quicker we could find ourselves disconnected!

Now we are all hopelessly hooked,

forty years of force-feeding is all it took.

Without a Net connection one is hopelessly lost,

an EM-saturated world permanently tempest-tossed!

(No AI was used in the writing of this poem.)

Doorways

 

Moving through the hallways of life

one keeps encountering doorways.

Entrances and exits to other realities,

or at least other paradigms in sight.

Life changes and aging bring new

encounters with throughways to novel worldviews.

Leaving the area called “career” and entering

that large unknown void called “retirement.”

Leaving one relationship for another,

hopping between rooms called ‘friends.’

Nice to know one can step back into most

other rooms and reconnect with dear ones.

On a larger scale, regions or countries

can leave a familiar hallway by electing

some new person to a leadership position.

Exiting the familiar, we all step into a void,

hoping not to fall off a cliff into new squalor.

With climate change, our entire Earth transits

a new doorway into climactic upheavals unknown…

Yet in the distant past the Earth was covered by ice.

Perhaps we will know the future by looking back.

Doorways and entrances to new unknown realities

cause one to wince as we take the jump.

Frightening future, here we come!