Punching Down, Leaning In, Taking Down

All the smartest folks are boxers
Choosing their social strategies
To end up as what—a success?

A lionized success? Moral
Arbiter among backbiters?
One name that everyone drop-checks?

Oh, to have it all! Affection,
Peace, security, resources,
And a lofty reputation.

And who attains this, who’ll admit
To wanting to attain just this?
No, everyone loves the failures

Who left behind the things well-loved,
Whose failures are a kind of hope
That failure now’s not failure yet.