The Tired Knight

If they cast me in one of those cheap

Medieval action flicks with cardboard swords and armor

The director’s eyebrow rises: he dubs me the tired knight –

Noble perchance, but I do not want to fight

If his once Star-Spangled friends sink

knee-deep into the outhouse of politics

They strive in vain to requisition the tired knight

They say he is noble, but in this spat does not want to fight

If the umpteenth family breaks apart into

Vitriol shards sharp enough to puncture the dragon’s scale

No doubt they will try to drag in the tired knight

To shed blood in a war he does not want to fight

Do not hire knights anymore to do a mercenary’s work

Leave your talking points at home: only coffee is Excalibur

If I’m noble in truth, do not sully what remains to this sleepy, tired knight

Who, yawning at the banners, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your fight.