Bravery

“When Raleigh sailed into Cadiz, and all the forts and ships opened fire on him at once, he scorned to shoot again, and made an answer with a flourish of insulting trumpets.”

Robert Louis Stevenson, “The English Admirals”

Since life is mathematics, life is strange

To me.  Where courage comes from is not clear

Equations.  Waiting here within the range

Of men and women, courage is that queer

Phenomenon outside the minus, plus

And equals signs.  If Salvador in paint

Attempted to create it, maybe pus

Would spill from fingers, quite Surreal in taint,

Since bravery shouldn’t actually exist

In algebra.  The theorem of signs

Like calculus cannot explain the fist

Raised high in hearts like bristling porcupines.

  Dalí on canvas can’t compete with such

    A mystery.  It’s well beyond his clutch.

~ Phillip Whidden