sonnet 173: our liberal education

isn't it weird, keri? or you touch down mid-sentence
as if someone's already been speaking, maybe for hours, & we're
arriving late for the poem, unavoidably delayed in transit
or just not giving a shit it's not (but it is) up to us to decide
& that could be where we disappoint or enrage,
like a parody that doesn't negate anything that came before
it just enlivens the view a little, modifying the way we think
or choose to feel as if everything's as rational as that & these bodies
continue ticking on like cars or a form of public transport
we understand the timetables of. not likely, is it?
then it's time for lunch & if we don't like someone we just
won't read them it's a hangover shaped like a lesson in morals
we learn to avoid & you're the cure not a voice that says stop drinking
but a great CD to make us dance

(Overland 160, 2000)

home | journal | poetry | grafx | webjunk | dogportal

ted@magicdog.com -- 21 December 2000