Rings

Image From pinterest.com

(Originally posted February 2014 during the Sochi winter games)
 

 

silken circles
express an ideal
flying high over youth
interwoven with notion
that impulse for war
can be tamed
may be turned
through a civilized pledge
intercultural pact
to compete upon
deathless clean fields
bloodless honor to those
who best manifest
citius altius fortius
bodies unbroken
retaining pure powers
of prime and of pride
past the truce that
ensues their campaign

so what happens
to ideals of youth
when those bodies
attain middle age
when the five rings
are struck and the
battle-flag raised
when the discus and
ski-pole are traded
for bullets and bombs
which of youth or
maturity makes for
an age that is mere
aberration and which
is the nature that
truly defines us