Before every fencing tournament, <br />After every match I win, <br />I stand before our portrait - <br />Your only reminiscence, <br />Reaching out to a nothingness <br />For blessings, <br />And finding an empty me <br />Reflected upon the glass, <br />Asking my tears in dismay: <br />What’s the use rummaging debris <br />From the repository of nothingness <br />Desperately seeking a shadow <br />A non-entity, <br />Long dissolved into darkness? <br /> <br />A voice then echoes <br />From my deepest recesses: <br />Nevertheless – respect the shadow; <br />For it taught you the martial art <br />Of patience and perseverance, <br />And made you a gladiator, <br />A resourceful samurai - <br />In the colosseum of life.<br /><br />Hazel Nut<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gladiator/
