Song of the Powers by David Mason

When reading this poem I thought of the simple hand game, ro-sham-bo, rock-paper-scissors, whatever you would like to call it. The entire poem I only thought of the game and the rules to which to play, until the last stanza:

As stone crushes scissors,

as paper snuffs stone

and scissors cut paper,

all end alone.

So heap up your paper

and scissor your wishes

and uproot the stone

from the top of the hill.

They all end alone

as you will, you will.

Then  I thought of this poem as a deeper meaning. I thought of the rock, paper, and scissors to each represent some form of power in the human world, like mere strength, speech, or sword. These three forms of human strength in the working world can represent how to get up on the "social ladder". It's hard to explain but the working class as a whole is really nothing without the individual strengths- just like how they "all end alone". But, all the individuals make up the entire class.

I also began to think of this poem to represent some sort of war movie, like Lord of the Rings. The stone representing a soldier (mere strength again), the paper representing something like a spy or a sneaky bird creature like that of Lord of the Rings, and the scissors representing something with more royalty like a King. All three can be defeated one or the other. The spy kills the soldier through sneaky traps, the soldier kills the king with mere strength and betrayal, and the king kills the spy with might and authority. The cycle just going on and on.