--with a line by Andrew Marvell
www.ronnowpoetry.com
Beautiful summer day. You know you're gonna die that's why you know no joy. Obsessed with self, there is no answer unless religion, tv, stories, sports matter. So what if nothing rhymes and I don't bring my life into an expressible state or fight purposelessness, anomie. No one writes. Running the gauntlet alone. A good day to die, the Apaches say. For men like us dying's easy, it's living that's hard. And since dying's much like living, that's hard too. There's some contentment in letting community decide your place in it. We're not talking to you. Really, it's a perfect day. Every leaf is out that's coming out. The grass is high and unidentified yet another year. Being knowledgeable is the best defense against your insignificance. Can't stop the quince from blossoming or my sons from smoking, speeding. The best that can be done or said's a blessing. Less tv, less guessing about the effects of your anger unless you want to be an angry man forever. Coming from the funeral with friends, talking on the telephone. OK about being alone. Alive, almost sure of it. Whether I'm a visitor to my life or the actual owner. Mature poets steal, most are masturbators. This house could use a good cleaning, dusting for ghosts. I should subscribe to the local newspaper, do my job well, do less until one thing's done well. What would that be? Old, and yet so young. There are a million poets, I'm poet #500K. Plenty of mysteries, infinite philosophies, prayers, laws and unwritten rules. That's why we go to school, life's complicated. All I do not know: ATP, probabilities, the glorious revolution, meiosis and mitosis and all I'll never see, the bottom of the ocean, the palm at the end of the mind, a wolverine. There are certain indicators, undeniable, inexorable. Forget-me-not, is that all I want? To get lucky, you gotta be careful first. To be great, you gotta be willing to sound BAD. Although we cannot make the sun stand still yet will we make him run. Brave revelers. Signed engagement letter attached. Attachment to self and to things to do.
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