The Poem that Nobody Likes (a poem)

O’ love is so cliche, they say.

Perhaps verse about struggles

with society or sobriety

if you desire notoriety.

 

Why, Dante already thought that

and Shakespeare already brought that

and Shelley already wrought that

and Poe, too many know.

 

Caverns measureless to man (1)

are no longer in demand,

So–go back to your unreal city! (2)

for your poetry is pretty…

 

The moon, is a naked whore,

no ballads to her anymore,

Spare us all the old tropes,

We want desire, without hope! (3)

 

We want racism! we want sexism!

You don’t speak to our activism,

Your idealism, your romanticism

only warrants our vandalism.

 

We want subversion and perversion,

our interest is the inversion

of Philippians four-eight,

verse that inspires our hate.

 

1) Kubla Khan, Samuel Coleridge

2) The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot

3) Close enough to Inferno 4.42, Dante Alighieri (Longfellow version)