11/52

Continuation on the Names

Before they stepped out onto the main stage of the killing floor
gladiators at the Colosseum had to nervously wait in the wings
behind a metal gate maybe
barfing on the toned calves of the man in front of them
while a lion ripped the whistling guts out of a familiar stomach
Still, some of them kept their humor, and managed to carve penises
and yo' momma jokes into the walls
Yes, "VIND", for victory, was common, and maybe if the character were an honest man
an inspirational quote about hope or carping a diem were tolerable
but I'd imagine the most popular guy in the gladiator locker room
was the guy who had the best one liner about
how much the emperor liked the smell of his own farts
or sucked about playing his fiddle

Archaeologists have also found messages in viking caves
scaling unstable ladders on creaky mud slicked floors
they deciphered the runes for things like
"Sven was here" or
"Johannes climbed this"

It would seem we were made to leave our mark some how

but what of the wishing well?
What of the wishes that echoed down and back from the water
just once
never to be heard again
how now their corpses are piles of shiny coins lost in the pitch black

What of the the stars in the sky?
How each one must have been someone's first
someone's wishing star
how the sky's soft but merciless dark is too vast for an echo

How so many of us may have tried
only never to have been heard of at all