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Recorded Reading (1:53): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cslz6wsxxfb2hdd0fk3aj/There-s-This-Thing-About-Heroes.wav?rlkey=wrzq588xpa40d6yx3ibcku0l3&dl=0

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There’s This Thing About Heroes

There’s this thing about heroes:
They’re radical and rough
Intolerant of nonsense
Sometimes abrupt — they’re tough

As are the roots of some old tree
Weathered many a wind
Yet stand as staunch as any knight
For justice and for kin

There’s this thing about heroes:
They have enormous hearts
None larger in their own life
Its good advice imparts

So sometimes to swift judgment
Fall erroniously
As so must any, subject to
Naught but its own authority

There’s this thing about heroes:
None feels worse than they
When in the realms of error
They realize they’ve been at play

Or find some situation
Over which they can’t prevail
As must inevitably happen
Midst this world’s travail

Knowing remorse magnificent
As is their prowess among men,
And a determination
To make all right again

There’s this thing about heroes:
They hurry to meet life
Its labor, sweetness, sweat and tears
Its ecstasy and strife

Straining every tendon
Every energy within
A brand new love affair with life
At every moment to begin

There’s this thing about heroes:
When all the world will fall away
And leave you to the mercies
Of your appalling dying day

Look over there beside you
The hero’s still at arms
Giving you time recover to
From slings and arrows’ harms

There’s this thing about heroes:
I’ve known one or two
And of those one or two, Sir,
One of them is you

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This poet is physically disabled. Public housing being insufficient to her medical and creative needs, she is presently living, in order to continue working, in her minivan, publishing all of her works using one thumb on the touch screen of her smartphone, surviving at an income of a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. She would treasure any donation you might care to offer ~ http://www.UgiftABLE.com ● #72D-31S.

Please be aware that it takes several days for the poet to be notified of contributions. International patrons please contact the poet via email or post a comment for the necessary numbers.

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