poemranker ::A Bronze Mule by Dovina

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Free verse № 142490

A Bronze Mule

by Dovina

Member since 2004 · Posted 19 Apr 2006 · 13 comments

Many tactics women try when taunted by their rivals. I’ll not bore with curses, bribery, gunshots, poison, which others might employ, but only mention that, humbled by competitors, I asked him how to win. He said, with little hesitation, unmoved by penitent stance, as a king to a concubine, “Nothing I can think of.” I, like a bronze mule, pedestaled alone in the public square, was gradually, deliberately joined by competing statues— glamour-warriors, beautiful and brave, lifted there and vying for favors from the king. Among them no washer-woman, Rosie-the-riveter, Autocad programmer, none old and skilled in sex. They can stay, if they desire, honored there in bronze, but I have a row to plow and a poem to plan about a lover and a worker and a naïve faith.

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13 comments

[9] Ranger 19-Apr-06/7:14 AM Reply
Good stuff, although it sounds like you limited your market research to one slightly clueless chap. And grace in defeat means that you may feel humble, but never humiliated. Only suggestion is that in the final stanza, put another task after 'row to plow' - makes it fit with the rule of three. Other than that, good story.
[10] ALChemy › Ranger 19-Apr-06/4:57 PM Reply
I always thought the rule of 3 was that you can tell how many women a man has had by dividing the amount he gives by 3 and you can tell how many men a woman has had by multiplying the amount she gives by 3.
[n/a] Dovina › ALChemy 19-Apr-06/5:04 PM Reply
lol. I have had 0. Explain that!
[10] ALChemy › Dovina 19-Apr-06/5:30 PM Reply
I think it means you're a lesbian. But worry not, once men realize a woman's a lesbian they all want to have sex with her.
[9] Ranger › ALChemy 20-Apr-06/2:17 AM Reply
Presumably there's a third rule of three, just to continue the trend.
I'd ask how many women you've had, but the impression I've got is that the text box isn't nearly big enough...
[10] ALChemy 19-Apr-06/4:50 PM Reply
I love this. I have no idea what it means but I love it.
[n/a] Dovina › ALChemy 19-Apr-06/4:53 PM Reply
Then you have a feeling for what it means. Go for explaining it please. And do not worry that I will impose the pompspouter rule again.
[10] ALChemy › Dovina 19-Apr-06/5:13 PM Reply
I guess this could be the artist/theologist mule you're talking about. If so, I like the bronze idea.
[n/a] Dovina › ALChemy 19-Apr-06/5:19 PM Reply
While that is not what I was thinking, I will allow you that interpretation. It's a far sight better than Hitler's rendering of the New Testament and Stephen Robins' take on WWII.
[10] ALChemy › Dovina 19-Apr-06/5:25 PM Reply
Now you must tell me the true interpretation of your poem lest I be inspired to cause a holocaust upon all the bronze statues of the world.
[n/a] Dovina › ALChemy 19-Apr-06/8:51 PM Reply
Once upon a time, there was a woman who had a man; and she was his one-and-only. He catered to her desires and placed her likeness on a pedestal in the public square of his life. Then along came wicked glamour-warriors, encroachers upon her man. He, finding some of them lovely, made pedestals for them also, and had bronze statues of then crafted and placed in his public square beside hers. Their statues were beautiful to look upon, where hers was a mere working mule who gave him pleasure as she could. Finally she was fed up. She left the king to his serfdom, and trotted off to plow rows and write poems
[9] Sunny 24-Apr-06/6:25 PM Reply

Awww, now that it was layed out on a plate for me, thanks Dovina, but I promise I didn't make sure it was broken down before I read, I read first. I picked up on the scene in itself all right...all except the personal issue. I'm sorry, not to be mistaken for pity or such - I see the literary beauty that came out of those sorrows, easier said than gone through I know.

*Clever theme you chose & quite appropriate in time-line sense for this metaphorical statue of a poem, but...
*Not too crazy about the line breaks; I found quite a few to be a bit random & off-guard at times.

Turning a cut stone into a diamond...cheers...

~Sunny
[n/a] Dovina › Sunny 24-Apr-06/7:43 PM Reply
Thanks for the comment. Enjambment between verses is something I have complained about in others’ poems. Now, here I am doing it myself, like some hypocrite. I thought that “competing statues” was a new thought, though connected in the sentence with not so much as a comma, so I did the act.