Puttering, Sputtering, Muttering Age

Given sufficient hindsight
And the way waves tend to close
Over disasters, you see

Incompetence works alright
And competence isn’t great.
You have to have history

To pick apart the great wrecks,
But as much as you’d like to
Pin a collapse on errors

Of bad emperors, stupid
Generals, the states go down
In their systemic failures

More like aging bodies than
Back-stabbed heroes in their prime.