SIR HUMPHREY DAVY
By James Edward Lee Sr.
Abominated gravy
He lived in the odium,
of having discovered sodium
12/09/17
I DON’T KNOW
So what’s wrong with saying “I don’t know”
When your poem is good, and feels just so?
A technical requirement to state categorically
What you have said, albeit metaphorically.
Like asking Einstein to place his e=mc2 formula
Neatly in the correct position on a page of algebra
Otherwise he will lose marks and gain only “C”
Or ordering Michaelangelo to sign properly
So that his paintings may be in a catalogue
And the gallery guide can give her monologue.
Or what if Curie was given a low academic gradation
For fooling around with radium and radiation?
Or Sir Humphrey Davy, remembered with odium
For accidentally stumbling on the discovery of Sodium:
Imagine his schoolteacher fillng out the report card -
“Davy is disorganized and needs to work hard”
So please allow poets to say that they do not know
The category into which they must go.
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