Jump back! Here comes a poem!
It’s fantastic bombastic.
You can’t ignore it. It’s that loud.

This poem is a cowboy
riding to a high noon stand-off with Hypocrisy.
That poem is a fireman
carrying Beauty from a burning building in its strong arms.
This poem is an abattoiriste
slaughtering lies one after the other without compunction.

I can’t get loud enough to make such a poem.
I’ve tried.

So, what I want to know is
can a poem get up in the morning, go to work, put in a good eight hours,
come home, change into its pajamas, have dinner in front of the television,
wake up the next day and do it all again?

Can a poem be
not a hero
but a solid worker,
filing a report, every twenty lines or so,
on some modest truth?

By Janet Walenta, EC Poetry & Prose Member, Greenbelt, Maryland, United States

About the Author

Now retired, Janet Walenta worked in eldercare recreation for 25 years. She especially enjoyed engaging clients in cognitive activities, including writing exercises. A member of the Ellicott City Poetry & Prose Collective, she is active on the local poetry open mic scene in suburban Washington, D.C.

Feature Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Performance Artist at Hire.

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