Poetry: Failure in Success?

Ridiculous thoughts either make for poetry or ridiculous thoughts. I have many of them and have taken to writing them down in the hopes that they're worth more than a piece of shit. I mean, here's to hoping right? But since my poetic thoughts are limited tonight to say the least, I'll simply share a poem from one of my favorite poets, Tony Hoagland.

Brave World

But what about the courage

of the cancer cell

that breaks out from the crowd

it has belonged to all its life

like a housewife erupting

from her line at the grocery store

because she just can't stand

the sameness anymore?

What about the virus that arrives

in town like a traveler

from somewhere faraway

with suitcases in hand,

who only wants a place

to stay, a chance to get ahead

in the land of opportunity

but who smells bad,

talks funny, and reproduces fast?

What about the microbe that

hurls its tiny boat straight

into the rushing metabolic tide,

no less cunning and intrepid

than Odysseus; that gambles all

to found a city

on an unknown shore?

What about their bill of rights,

their access to a full-scale,

first-class destiny?

their chance to realize

maximum potential? - which, sure,

will come at the expense

of someone else, someone

who, from a certain point of view,

is a secondary character,

whose weeping is almost

too far off to hear,

a noise among the noises

coming from the shadows

of any brave new world.