Poem: "Balancing In Action"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came from the May 1, 2012 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by prompts from janetmiles, the_vulture, and kelkyag.  It was sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.  This poem belongs to the series Sort Of Heroes, which you can explore further on the Serial Poetry page.

Comments

[janetmiles]

"It's like a stone in your boot, ain't it?"
Nib said. "It makes me think,
after all the grief come down on evil overlords,
what are the good ones getting up to?"

"Bandit come, magic wobble," Brod said.
"Bandit go, magic settle."
That made sense, Nib thought.
Then again, when was life ever that simple?

I feel really stupid about this, but I'm just not getting this one. Could you unpack it a bit, or would that ruin it for everyone else?

[siege]

It's a world where the default balance trends toward badness, and it's changing.

Okay...

[ysabetwordsmith]

In this setting, there are evil overlords and good overlords -- people with a bunch of power in stable positions, who manage the flow of dark and light magical energies and other power dynamics. We may gather that these are generally "lawful" rather than "chaotic" or at least are concerned with maintaining some kind of consistency rather than anarchy. It's the difference between having a tent securely pegged down, or one corner flapping loose in the wind.

Toppling the Basalt Tower (back in " The Henchmen's Hitch") left a power vacuum that destabilized that. In " Falling Up" the Myrklord muses on the changing power dynamics, which is something he's more inclined to notice, rather than Nib and Brod who are functioning at a much lower level. " Call to Duty" indicates that other people are noticing; there's a new dark lord attracting minions and making a bid for power. But he's not competent, and fails the attempt

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith]

In this setting, there are evil overlords and good overlords -- people with a bunch of power in stable positions, who manage the flow of dark and light magical energies and other power dynamics. We may gather that these are generally "lawful" rather than "chaotic" or at least are concerned with maintaining some kind of consistency rather than anarchy. It's the difference between having a tent securely pegged down, or one corner flapping loose in the wind.

Toppling the Basalt Tower (back in " The Henchmen's Hitch") left a power vacuum that destabilized that. In " Falling Up" the Myrklord muses on the changing power dynamics, which is something he's more inclined to notice, rather than Nib and Brod who are functioning at a much lower level. " Call to Duty" indicates that other people are noticing; there's a new dark lord attracting minions and making a bid for power. But he's not competent, and fails the attempt