Cold Leftovers
There will be no more Burroughs.
No more Bukowski’s.
There will never be another
Ginsburg.There will never again
be a world famous poet.There will only be me
and others
like me.Others
who hulk around
In the shadows
of the genius
that the big fella’s
left behind.Spamming the internet
with half thought
wordsripped from the lips
of other peoples
faces.And we will tell tales
of drunkards
and whores
and brawlsand nothing;
We will only have
whispers while the other
men screamed.and the howls of the past
will haunt our trying voice
as it whimpersand
whimpersLike children crying
for a hug
from
their
dadd
Great poem, Ben, a cosmic blast at the past —
Has it ever been otherwise? The process of assimilation and re-visioning
goes on and on.
I’m not sure anyone would want to be like the poets referenced in this good
poem — maybe the poem is an admonition? We learn from the odd
missteps of our forebears. . . Or, maybe not?
There is so much more that writing could do and still has miles to go — for
example it is a long way behind painting and light years behind jazz.
So, that’s something to strive for: pushing writing into a more effective expression.