Friday, August 15, 2014

SHELL GAME

The poem—in the middle 
has been there
since high school—

it knows quite 
a rather
impressive little

and means
exactly—the halfway-

decent 
and clean things it says.

On the other hand—
the one 
on the far end

probably contains it all—but seems 
to say
what it means 

with unbecoming gravity
and much
too much—finality.

Then there's 
that poem—up closest to you;

soiled—it seems
to know 
that it knows 

the little 
dull 
grubby 
things that it knows—but thankfully 

it chose—

to lie—and lie lots!
and it hopes
to high hell—that you'll 

pick up on it.