The Dismaying (poem)

 

 

 

The Dismaying

 

Seriousness, ha, ha, ha

surplus responsibility from I love you

Don’t, these days, be loved

Think hard, take an hour, on relevancy

on impact, on whether unimpactful relevancy

or relevance without

counts. Is modern. Modern?

Modern Modern Modern Modern

Begins to look like a dark kingdom’s moniker

Was modernity an early twentieth-century longing

Do we wish now to be a very current thing

but sorry to borrow any unearned phrase

Is there a shady bench along the mental way

head trip    zippity-zip    rocket ship

oh, boom

rockets need their cratering ends to begin

and we aren’t meant to care

only exhibit rah-rah if asked to speak

otherwise, never fret whose money

coagulates into desert glass

bury it once and it cannot be seen

A cooling fountain, a lecturer’s stand

dot our brainly park stroll

a hooligan of a ceremony

sweeps the band clear if everyone’s ready

The Dismaying, have it be a trilogy, part one

The post to pillar modernity

Part two, The Unveiling, where the rich hold mindfulness sessions

Jet in special teachers

Lama, your avoided task is Associate with Decency

Accept no donations for your wellness retreat

For you know

They on the cushions are what they have been

What will they do, go on television?

Thanking themselves for their work with Visible Victims

Part three, The Divided Legacy

The dead man directing dead spending from the grave

His withholdings by this guaranteed

 

 

 

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The Dismaying

Fortune’s Refugees

Mettle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2021, Stephanie Foster)