The Change

The Change

The amulet faded,

Flickered and died.

It lay cross his palm

On a chain. He cried,
“Come back you errant

And changing tide!”

He'd just been reading

His poesy and

It had gone from rough

To polished sand.

“My father, my mother,

My sisters were wrong.

I do have a talent.

I'm gifted in song.

And all the shrinks

Who treated me ill

Will perish and lie

In puddles of swill.

I shall live

Although dead as they.”
A glorious game

To loving each lay

From hating each poem

Until today.

And his genius

Had gone away.

The Rules

Go to school for an MFA,

The only game in town today.

Except the jerk with a brain of bone

Who reads no poems but his own.

He sat in class while the pedant preached,

“Don't write poetry on verse.

Thinking is bad, but this is worse.”

Thus the PhD beseeched.

With a stroke of naivete

He heard what the teacher had to say.

Then stealing lightning from the sky,

He simply asked the teacher why.

The incipient bards who had bought a doom

Drove the heretic from the room.

As he hurried out the door

He dropped a paper on the floor.

The pedant stooped and took the bit

Of paper where some words were writ.

They read the words that glowed like light -

A poem none of them could write.

 

Getting Famous

Part of writing poesy

Is getting into print.

To make the public notice

Takes more than just a hint.

I don't know how to do it

So I don't even try,

Though I may go on writing

Even til I die.

Shakespeare was a businessman

Promoting every play.

If he hadn't done it

He'd be unknown today.

 

The Cat

My wife and I were sitting

Alone at home tonight.

We noticed that our cat

Seemed a bit bemused,

And for a moment sat,

Cocked ears and tilted head,

Very unenthused,

But pensively instead.

We sat and looked at him

And then my darling said,

“He's thinking about things,

The meaning of his life.”
With the genius distance brings,

I muttered to my wife,

“Though quietly he perches

And delves into his searches

For truths in his affairs,

All living things on earth

Have meanings that are theirs.

And he must beware,

Cautiously take care

Lest a passing goat

Shove meaning down his throat.”