Our Mettle Purged

our steel tempered

our blade whetted
unsheathed

our valor proved
approved

To pierce
the outer darkness

cleave the inner sphere

Strike
while the iron is hot

and the heart is cold

the symmetry
earth-shaking

and that old sentry
defense slumbers

Love
is a sound sleeper

and no match
for a determined offense

and unsportsman-like conduct.

Patrick Theron Erickson, a resident of Garland, Texas, a Tree City, just south of Duck Creek, is a retired parish pastor put out to pasture himself. His work has appeared in Visitant, Grey Sparrow Journal, Tipton Poetry Journal, and The Main Street Rag, among other publications, and more recently in Torrid Literature Journal, South Florida Poetry Journal, Arlington Literary Journal and Sheila-Na-Gig.