Work in Progress
I have it in my heart
for short guys
who've made it big:
Martin Scorsese, Jon Stewart.
There are so many.
Although I kind of cringe when I think of Danny DeVito
--sorry.
Bruno Mars, though, especially.
And I'd actually add Tom Cruise to the short list
based only on the way he performed in Magnolia.
Of course, Robert Reich,
but that's a different sort of thing.
El Chapo.
My first short hero from the movies was Alan Ladd.
Who reminds me of Ed Harris, who--
as a bonus--also has
that balding thing going for him.
As do I--
Most would consider that
I show fine from my face alone,
But there are only so many times you can
read or hear in common culture the words 'small' and 'little'
used to denigrating effect--and not be affected.
The examples are too many to name.
...I guess you could say the same thing--
on the other side--about
"Big Oaf" or "Big Dummy"
"That little--! You little punk!"
How often do you hear short, dark and handsome?
We're part of the understory
Privy to the sunlight only on noblesse oblige...
On the plus side, I've still got all my teeth,
Knees are good. In pretty good shape all around.
There's a lot to be thankful for. Flexible.
I came up with this crazy explanation
That explains why I'm here,
encased in this particular body--
Marked noticeably by its smallness.
Then pile on, at my age, especially:
the shrinkage--
That hardly seems fair...
[Part below needs work]
Anyway, the way that it goes is
In a past life--
That--admittedly--might be an issue for some--
But anyway--
In this circling play,
Shakespeare's God made me a king,
Acclaimed by all women and men
But a king whose arrogance was his undoing.
Back here, in our más or menos
consensual reality,
my raison d'etre is
To learn humility
It's the humility that I lacked that I now here to practice--
And it should be a dignified thing: Humility.
Anyway, enough of that.
Little. What's the difference between small and little?
I hear "little" used as a pejorative--
As in, "That little so-and-so".
Put "little" in front of any put-down word,
and you've added ridicule to defamation.
But it's the "little" things in life that give it resonance. Meaning.
