POET BY NIGHT ~ R.M. Engelhardt

POET BY NIGHT

No one
Ever asks

To be a poet

This shit just
Happens to you

Word addiction
The turn of a phrase
Your mind works
Differently

Than other
Peoples minds

A gift?
Or a curse?

You start writing
Jotting down notes
Talking into your phone

Start looking at
Reading books
Quietly taken out

From the library

And on your lunch break?

You start
Scrolling poets
On Instagram

Occasionally
Looking up
To make sure
No one sees you

Is watching you

And then?

It starts

You begin to write poems

Not just 1 or 2
But dozens
Fascinated with
The way you can
Put them all together

Like

One of those haiku

Or sonnet thingys

As pain, humor
& emotion start
The human transformation

So you live a secret life
Among others

Writing in secrecy
Afraid of your own thoughts
Until one day it happens

” Open Mic For Poetry”

A sign

There are others like me?

You ask

Therapy groups?

Yes

So you go out
& listen

Read

In a bar
Under the light
Of the full moon

And after you read
Your poem a creepy old unshaven
Bohemian looking guy
Walks up to you & says

” That was great. Really good”

YOU’RE
ONE OF US
NOW

And the next
Thing you know
You’re wearing
Silly hats & smoking
Clove cigarettes

And drinking coffee
Past 8pm

You’re one
Of US now

And there
Is no cure

No escape

But to write

~ R.M. Engelhardt
©2023