i only write when you say i’m wrong

“Whenever we seem surprised or confused about some aspect of the universe, it’s because we have some pre-existing expectation for what it ‘should’ be like, or what a ‘natural’ universe might be, but the universe doesn’t have a purpose, and there’s nothing more natural than Nature itself—so what we’re really trying to do is figure out what our expectations should be.”

- Sean Carroll, Theoretical Cosmologist

 

never said i was right

never said you were wrong

i only said leave me alone

 

i believe what i believe

in this land of the free

 

my thoughts are not original

what i perceive

others see

 

like the difference between the

writers who can produce well

written and entertaining stories

and the writers who attain

literature

 

i am neither

ground control to agent seether

the library of congress only

copyrights original works

writing about breakfast beer

is a quirk

 

i failed english when the professor

assigned an essay be written

on the purpose of poetry

 

i turned in a blank sheet of paper

 

subsequently

i was laughed out of the poetry club

afterwards

i was beaten up by bullies and thugs

for carrying a copy of rod mckuen’s

poetry

 

but then everything is perception

for me

poetry is the smell of

her perfume that lingers

long after she is gone

 

proprietors of intellectual poetry

are posers

 

i guess this would get me an F as well

 

oh do tell

that where i fell

is where i linger

at the end of your

pointing finger

 

judgment is a hornet’s stinger

while you represent the man

who had no condemnation

for the whore cast at his feet

 

if my fragrance offends

then join the contend

of my insignificance

 

the universe is

and is so without purpose

so are my words

so is everything else

 

***