To Norman Mailer, pugilistic writer (1923-2007)
The only major writer I ever met.

Clip Courtesy the Movie, Fighting

Fighting

Men are want to fight,
as is their manly right.
Tumbling down the ages.

Encouraged child to child,
to fight the more wild.
The elders see as advantageous.

For fighting marks the man.
And fighting with his hand,
seems to make him courageous.

The black eye, the cut lip,
the skinned knuckles vie,
for the weak and the strong,
where the winner lie.

but fighting takes its toll,
and makes its bloody mark,
on defeated and victor alike.

For what is fortune and what is fame,
if brutal hits upon the head,
eventually slow and lame?

The pugilistic arts have survived,
for just one aim -- to watch one man
brutalize another for gambling gain.

If I were want to kill a man,
I'd do it swift with might.
I would not do it punch by punch,
over many a hot night.

But then no bets would be played,
and no man would watch death delayed.
Mano to mano, so to speak.

While a punch drunk man lies,
bleeding in the street.