You must act as though your actions arise
from a willingness to keep saying “Yes, and…”
like a somnambulist or automaton.
You know assumptions are as good as beliefs
and that no prizes are forthcoming
but the committee must not know you know
you’re not boring; you’re just bored with them.
To show you go nowhere, not “purest hell,”
die without fear. To demonstrate you
really hate someone, die without a will.
Wow, those last lines are a punch in the gut.
(Also, tempted to make an estate-tax joke here.)
Wow, those last lines are a punch in the gut.
(Also, tempted to make an estate-tax joke here.)
This is just so good.
This is fantastic. Can the authors please comment (if possible) on how they wrote it together?
Since there are two of us, our lyric “I” can never be purely autobiographical or individual, so we typically try to have form as opposed to content drive our poems. We also tend to trade lines back and forth, taking turns until a poem is done.