Losing strategy — Summary

Dave BontaAnxious

flee fight flee flee flee flee flee flee

FIGHT flee fight flee flee flee flee fight

fight fight fight flee fight flee fight

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

Almost the whole poem is made of just two words, "flee" and "fight," shuffled into short lines like a nervous mind switching back and forth. The first stanza is nearly all "flee." In the second, "FIGHT" appears in capitals, as if the speaker is shouting at themselves to stand firm, but the lines slide back into "flee" almost at once. Only in the last stanza does "fight" take over, and even then the final line ends in "flee," then "fight," leaving things unresolved.

The speaker seems caught between fear and the urge to resist, unable to settle on either. The title, "Losing strategy," suggests that neither choice works, or that constant wavering is the real problem. The mood is anxious and breathless. The bare repetition feels like a racing heartbeat, and the shrinking last stanza, with its missing final line, can read as exhaustion or a sudden stop.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Plea bargain

I hear half a beat of drum to serve time have half a hope in the meantime praise God
DreamyDave Bonta

Cibola 3

I awake in the dark and shake free of sheets & blankets, of down-filled quilt. The rituals of waking– the long, hot shower, the coffee–give
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss