The Tyger Uppercut

Tyger! Tyger uppercut!
Tyger knee him in the gut.
What jump forward jab or fierce
Could brave this fearful Street Fighter?

In what level’s pixeled sky
Doth one escape his patch’ed eye?
What the leap evade his ire?
What the turtle block his fire?

And what flash kick, sonic boom –
What wall jump from across the room?
What better move in all the game?
What yoga fire? Yoga flame?

What the Ryu? What the Ken?
What hadouken, shoryuken?
What the Blanka? What beast’s trick?
Down forward punch? Charge forward kick?

When Zangief bared his scratch’ed chest,
Or Cammy spandex’d up her breasts,
Did Sagat’s scar they think to see?
Did you just counter-pick Chun Li?

Tyger! Tyger uppercut!
Tyger knee him in the gut.
What jump forward jab or fierce
Dare brave this fearful Street Fighter?

– Fenzel

Carrion Console, by Gerard Manl-E. Honda

NOT, I’ll not, carrion console, Street Fighter, not continue thee;
Not insert — few they may be — these last quarters left
To me or, most weary, cry “Here comes a new challenger!”
I can; can something, hope, wish day come, go play Tekken 3.
But ah, but O thou Capcomical, why wouldst thou hard at me
Thy hundred-hand slap heave? lay a tigerpunch against me? sear
With Dhalsim’s devouring fire my bruised bones? and combo,
O in turns of tempest, me dizzièd there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

Why? That my button-mashing chaff might fly, my play-skill grain lie sheer and clear.
Nay in all those rounds, those wounds, since (seems) into the ring I stepped,
Pressed 1P start rather, my moves lo! back-fore, fierce punch, crowd cheers.
Cheers whom though? the hero whose Shoryoukenning flung me, foot swept
Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? That match, that year
of now spent quarters I wretch lay wrestling with (M. Bison!) M. Bison.

– Stokes

Fight Song #14
by Super John Berryman II (HD Remix)

Blanka, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, his green skin flashes, his attack burns,
we ourselves flash and burn
(when we touch his yellow aura)
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) ‘Ever to press the punch button
will give you blisters

on your thumbs.” I conclude now I have awful
blisters on my thumbs, because I had to stop playing.
The SNES bores me,
Street Fighter bores me, especially Super Street Fighter Turbo,
Blanka bores me, with his lack of missile attack
as badass as ryu’s,

who loves to fight against ken, who bores me.
And the background graphics, & sprites, look like a drag
and somehow Zangief
has taken himself & his chest hair considerably away
into someone else’s match or game or life, leaving
behind: me, piledriver.

– Callot

Chun Li
By Joystick Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
A fighter lovely as Chun-Li.

A girl who hovers upside-down
Her legs, outstretched, a-spinning ‘round.

Adorned in silk, her hair in buns
A dazzling string of o’s and ones;

Her lightning feet will quickly vex
Those who call dames the gentle sex;

And all her challengers shall hear
Her giggles in their bloody ears.

She even has her own movie.
Which I don’t recommend you see.

– Belinkie

SHADOWLOO
by W. H.Adoken

I sit in one of the dives
At the American base
Uncertain and afraid
As the jarheaded combatant expires
Waves of “Sonic Boom!”s
Circulate over the bright and darkened
Stages of the earth
Obsessing our lives and continues;
The unmentionable odor of quarters
Offends the September night

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offense
From Balrog until now
That has driven a city mad
Find what occurred in Thailand
What bonus stages made
A crimson-suited god
I and the public know
What all Street Fighters learn
That those who call M. Bison out
Face Bison in return.

Faces along the bar
Cling to the smash and bray
Ryu must never get knocked out
Chun Li must always play
All the continues expire
To make this stage assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are
Lost in a hidden course
Children afraid of the boss
Who cannot throw fire or force.

All I have is a joystick
To undo the final guy
The impressive man in the uniform
Who will render me dead in the street
And the lie of Shadowloo
Whose headquarters scrape the sky:
There is no such thing as Defeat
And no one fights alone.
Hadoken allows no choice
To the citizen or the police:
We must beat M. Bison or die.

– Perich

(What say you, Overthinkers – is this art? Or is this a pale imitation of art, a Killer Instinct to the original Street Fighter? Let us know in the comments!

And if the Muse inspires you to wax poetical yourself, feel free!)