No Single Victory

for Warren Ellis

                           Lots of small victories is better than one big one.
                           No single victory changes everything. Lots of little 
                           ones change a whole spread of things.
                                                  —Warren Ellis

 

No single victory changes the world.

   Victories are like snowflakes—each one’s part

Of a great blizzard, flake after flake hurled

   Against grief and loss, like a lonely dart.

It may feel pointless, like fighting the tide.

   It’s not. No single victory will fail

To tip the scales a little to the side

   You fight for. Each one is a precious nail

In Failure’s coffin, or a tiny knife

   That scrapes against the comfortable chain

That our kind jailers like to call “real life”—

   That keeps them safe by keeping us from pain.

      And if we choose to fight until we’re free,

      That outcome takes no single victory. 

 

Copyright 2015 Matthew J Wells