Darrow's sorrow

Don't be my knight in shining armor.
How can I love you if you hide away?
Armor will not protect your lady
from lovers' sorrow by light of day.
-- words & music © Susan Weber

In muted awe, two small boys stare at polished exoskeletons in the museum's famed armor court. Even stallions wore protective hardware, back in the day. A helmet cannot speak, eye slits cannot weep, chain mail does not groan its stories of frustration and defeat. As agonies of labor fade away when babies slide into the brightness, these knights in shining pose survival of the fittest's bloodless testament to life.

Here is the outfit that may save your torso from extinction in the Baghdad games today:

helmet 3.5 lbs
helmet cover .2 lbs
ballistic eye wear .2 lbs
outer tactical vest 8.4 lbs
front and back protective inserts for tactical vest 10.9 lbs
side protective inserts for tactical vests 7 lbs
M-16 rifle with attachments 9 lbs
gloves .3 lbs
magazines with ammunition 13.7 lbs
pouches 1.9 lbs
knee and elbow pads 1 lb
green smoke grenades (2) 4 lbs
hydration system with water 6.3 lbs
first aid kit 1 lb
combat assault sling .4 lbs
bayonet 1.3 lbs
fragmentation grenades (2) 4 lbs
earplugs with case .1 lbs
radio 1.1 lbs

Seventy four point three pounds. How many babies could you carry to their mamas' breasts if someone said this battle's over, shed your armor plate, rejoin the living? Maybe just one, you, the knight who dare not cry so long as tournament kings have summoned curators to hold their banners high.

You don't need armor plate to
be charming in this place to
close the space between us if you choose to.
Don't be my knight in shining
Don't be my knight in shining
Don't be my knight in shining
be my knight for real.
-- words & music © Susan Weber