The time for poets
Has passed.
The time for words
Is gone
I have decided.
Soul & mind
As all the machines
Take over
As heart & guts are
Fucked over by
Commercials, jingles
Liars, assholes &
Trite hallmark cards
That’s it
I give up
I’m finished
I’m done
I lost the fight
And the battle
Took too much
Out of me
I lost the war and
My will for self-preservation
Is gone.
Painting images
With words
And for all of love’s
Considerations.
Pushing verses
Past their limits
To try to reach
Other people
Just another poet,
Now dead on the verge
Of extinction, sitting in
A room by himself
As the next kid
Behind me picks up
His pen and puts it
To paper
Not knowing
What he is about
To become
Or lose.
__________
R.M. ENGELHARDT