The Shallow End of the Pool 

Survival of the fittest
Is not a guarantee
That a species’ very best
Will climb the family tree. 

The will to proliferate
Is the genetic rule
Of breeds degenerate
In the shallow end of the pool. 

~ Daniel F Mitchell

David by Michelangelo
Sculpted from 1501 to 1504

David turns his head aside
At the mention of his name,
For the loss of pride,
In legendary shame

At his maker’s oversight,
That formed his manhood so small,
And exposed him to fame’s light
With no clothes at all.

~ Daniel F Mitchell

Love-afflicted, I am filled to bursting with ether,
Transubstantiated by her sweet inebriate;
Her boundless embrace – my dream incarnate.
I taste her! I breathe her!
In all forms I see her magical gaze.
She has strewn her smile upon me
Until I am sheathed in sparks of ecstasy.
I am wrapped full in a passion-induced daze,
Resigned to complete capture.
Up then! Away wherever you desire!
Cease not this exalting fire -
Least linger a while that I might die in rapture.

~ Daniel F Mitchell

From antiquity’s tombs,
Rise malevolent fumes,
Ooze reincarnated fiends
From a black primordial ocean,
In terrible locomotion,
To stay
For a million years or a day,
When comets veer
To cloud the atmosphere,
And make them go away.

~ Daniel F Mitchell