"No matter how terrified you may be, own your fear and take that leap anyway because whether you land on your feet or on your butt, the journey is well worth it."
-- Laurie Laliberte
"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."
-- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
-- Anais Nin

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Bernard Schaffer


When Bernard pulled "Wait and Wait" from his youtube channel he told me he would send me another poem to replace it for this event. I thought he had, but I was mistaken. (We've both been really busy.) So I swiped this one from his Knife Fights collection because I really like it. (How could I not? It begins with a football reference!)

Meh. He probably won't even notice. And if I smile pretty he'll forgive me almost anything. He's good like that.

Anyhow, if you click on the title, you'll be able to see Bernard himself read his words. Check out the tat while you're at it. That's one reason Courtney Cantrell and I call him SGTB.


Knife Fights is currently available
on Amazon for kindle 
It is always fourth and inches
always knee deep in the mud
always lost somewhere behind enemy lines
always a bill collector calling
always the ex-wife demanding more.
Every day a new dictum from on high
based on whim
based on fragile, vicious egos.
It is always too late
too much to ask and too soon to talk about it
always nobody who wants to get involved
or losing heart and abandoning ship.
So there you are
alone again
steering into choppy water
crashing into rocks with wind and hail that blinds you
binding yourself to the ship's helm
so that if it overturns
you go down with it
and if it doesn't, somehow,
you live to fight another day.
It is always the final round
and you are always down in the judge's scorecards
none of it is easy
stop wishing it was
none of it is fair
don't expect it to be.
When I arrive at my destination
I'll have lost no little amount of blood
and all of my scars
will map the road I traveled to get there.
It is always someone else's turn
their destiny
their fated time to shine
but while those anointed ones
are patiently waiting for their hand-out
we'll be running them over
in diesel trucks made of iron will and sweat-soaked effort.
While you wait for it
we'll take it.
People ask me if I ever sleep
well I don't
I paste pictures of my enemies' faces
to black painted walls
in windowless rooms and
I stare at them for hours on end
and I get ready.
I get ready.
I get ready.

Bernard J. Schaffer is the bestselling author of Superbia, Superbia 2, Guns of Seneca 6, and Whitechapel: The Final Stand of Sherlock Holmes among others. He is also the founder of the Kindle All-Stars, a royal pain in the ass, and one of my favorite people on the planet. Follow him on twitter @apiarysociety or visit his website www.apiarysociety.com.

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