summer breeze froze in winter's bite
bed empty,
night stifling.

a dry bough cracks at numb sunrise
night endured,
now day's trifling.

The debating circuit

In debates at school we despised extreme statements.
Just a single example would disprove them: no need for skill at all.

By college, to prove All A is B was the true measure of worth.
We set ourselves to complex and nuanced reasoning
Why A must be B
—whether A wished to be B, knew she was B, or showed any sign of being B,
Or not—
We marshalled History, Economics, Politics and Society
To confirm it. Who could withstand that terrible nexus?

Certainly not the adjudicator.
How clever we have been, here is the trophy to prove it.

How dull were those who resented debate on the grounds that
A isn't, after all, B, and
That we didn't think it important to know it
When we could simply argue.