Poem Of The Century

POEM OF THE CENTURY

Secretly
I am quietly writing
Working on the
Poem of the century

The 21st
That is

And No

It won’t be epic

Say like The Wasteland
Or Howl

Disturbing the order
Of conformity

Creating chaos
Or change

It won’t be over one page long
Or able to fit in a pretty
Instagram picture

And it certainly won’t be
Posted in a group on Facebook

Tattered & Torn
And ripped apart by
Grammer Nazis

And wannabe critics

Who will find
It is far too complicated
To even

Fathom
Or understand

And it won’t be written
Made to pander, perform or scream
For all the neighborhood kids
Still doing backyard slams

In high school gymnastics

Thinking they’ve won
Something they never won

Or lost

For it does not fit their
Idea of a what a poem

Is supposed to be
Sound like
Beyond their idealism

Or imagination

Lacking all the pure drama
And ordinary clarity of using
Foul fucking language

Or overused gimmicks
About a girlfriend a boyfriend
A self declaration of self selfie
Behold the power of ME

Me Me Me or

Word ?

No

This poem must be, will be
Different

This poem must be
Genius

This poem must be

Saying everything
And saying nothing

At all

Completely
Absolutely

So
Secretly
I am quietly writing
Working on the
Poem of the century

The 21st century
That is

Isn’t

A poem on a blank
Page perhaps

Or deep unexplainable emptiness
Or loss

And a grief that
No one sees
Or even notices

Because
There is no more left
To say except
So far this century
Has only been about
Shallowness, selfishness &
Virtual reality

An overexagerated pop
Culture overload
& the karmic return of
All the useless shit
Hate & apathy and the
Silence of fear

And pure undoing

That we thought
We had all already

Overcome
In the past

So I am writing the
Poem of the century

This masterpiece
A facade

Which will capture the
Complete & defining essence

Of America
The obvious
The lack of humanity
The times
Without a true conscience
Or simple grace

And it will be
Something more
Something less
Something else

And more fake news

That nobody
Really wants to
Hear

Or read

In the end

So
Here now
And for generations
To come

May I introduce :

The greatest
Poem of The 21st Century

A poem & generation
With nothing at all

To say

That truly mattered

~ R.M. Engelhardt
©2024