Round 69

Yusef: "Man Running" by Richard Wilbur

Bob: "Do Flies Remember Us" by Jean Valentine

We've all seen that movie or that t.v. show where the guy is running away from the law. Richard Wilbur has seen it too, and writes a banal, stereotypical poem-version of it in tired rhymes:

Whatever he has done
Against our law and peace of mind,
Our mind's eye looks with pity of a kind
At the scared, stumbling fellow on the run

The phrase "of a kind" is only there for the meter and rhyme. Wilbur's point is that we sympathize instinctively with the guy running away, not with the police.

Jean Valentine's poem makes a more original point, in fresher language:

Do flies remember us?
We don't them
we say "fly"

say
"woman"
"man"

[There is typo in the first line: "Do files remember us?"] This one goes to Bob Creeley, who has now won a bare majority of the total of 75 rounds.

After 69:

19-38-11

The final five rounds will be conducted tomorrow, even though the outcome is no longer in doubt. Also tomorrow, my best of the best and worst of the best lists.