To Do It Again

I'll teach English when I'm older, but a lot of men have done.

I model railroads and write poems, which some others do for fun,

But to stop huge, skilled, and violent men's a rarer thing to do.

A man knows he's important who's replaceable by few.

It takes a certain disregard for injury or death,

But my teammates, too, will risk their limbs to keep me drawing breath.

Man's hands get gory, grimy, in the thick of thorny acts,

But sore hands rest easy after in the comfort of those facts.

My life's a long, sordid story of sequential sins

With no joining motives, but I do this to win,

Because my team stays ahead of the distance and down,

Which means that I'm good at something, worth having around.

Inevitable dreams aside, which never do get far

I never had the chance, the hope, the thought to be a star,

So protecting friends and alphas is the that closest I've been.

I'd tear ten bills' worth off my hide to do it all again.