The Trouble With Poets - May 24 2022

 

The Trouble With Poets

May 24 2022

There's the usual learning curve.

Although whether “steep” is the word

and just what it means

I'm not quite sure.

A hard uphill slog?

Or fast,

quickly ascending

to the fertile alpine meadow

of certain mastery?

That's the trouble with metaphor.

Or is “curve” analogy

in this expression?

But either way, why not speak plainly

say what you mean?

Politicians

con-men

poets,

suitors and seducers

and sellers of used cars

are all guilty of this.

The second hand sedan

that had that big accident,

previously owned

previously loved.

Lower taxes,

yet somehow more stuff

in exchange for my vote.

But my learning stalls

partway up.

Get fooled by the candidates

sabotaged by greed,

deceived

by the art of the deal.

Read poetry

and find myself believing

in beauty and truth

everlasting love.

Forgetting

that what goes up

must come down.

A steep curve,

and a long way to fall

before getting to the top.