A Wee Sonnet on Duty

Impoverished as you are, you stay an heir
And were not raised to lackey, but to rule –
As long as you participate in there:
Your only business, though, is bucking, mule.

Instead of boding some new golden age
Trailblazer, cautious contemp, rearguard wimp
It’s bucking and it’s botching, do not rage:
Ere dreams come real, louse ’em up, old shrimp.

Life lasts a little balking and a spell –
Methinks there ain’t a brighter option here;
Unconscious or cognizant, prior to hell
That sole transcendent task: to countersteer.

Be blessed on this odd testing ground the name
Famed or infamed, of him who mars the game!

November 25, 2009

Writing to Someone

Should I start confessing things? Should I
Promote the furtherance of knowledge about me?
Who’d ever take to learning more of my human condition?
Possible readers have their own potential conditions.
In case of doubt, they resort to a practitioner.

That said, I have recently realized that
Having reached canonical age and having authored canonical writs
One still may largely jot prescriptions to self.
Because other people continue to have other worries.
This is about life
And this is about poetry.

That said, I have furthermore made out
Dabblers to be not necessarily bad practitioners.
They’ve been able to chalk up some traces of success.
Because conditions are ideally self-inflicted
Any self-responsible goofball will do.
This is once more about life
And this is once more about poetry
And this is even a bit of a confession.

November 24, 2009

Dandruff Sequel – Head Job

Dandruff is – see how I tousle? –
Dead matter shed from a head.
And so is poem. See?
To have live stuff coming off it, first
Bump your poll against some wall
To get it bleeding.
Isn’t this also considered a poet’s job?

Led away beyond the pale of their lives
Readers are easily diverted, but
Blood – even read blood –
Helps regain lost attention.
Some may say this is
Because of its lively taste
They misjudge.

Real life, provided it smack of anything
Sure enough tastes of tedium.
Then again, it is true that more
Than flakes, reliable gore
Enlivens a bore.

November 3, 2009 [Sequel to: Ceteri egoque, 10]