of barbeque sauce and poetry

One of these days I’m gonna make myself painfully sick

trying to be a goddamn poet

I’m gonna take every piece of poetic s**t I've ever written

and throw them all into the barbeque grill

not just the final drafts and prints but

every idea and thought and revision

every notebook and journal and spare sheet of paper

every bar napkin and coaster and ATM receipt

and every other scrap that I've defaced

with a regurgitated moment or memory

when misguided inspiration heaved it out of me

I’ll mix them around with charcoal

and soak them in lighter fluid

throwing in old CD-R’s and 3.5 floppy disks

as if they’re mesquite and hickory wood chips

I’ll spend a whole afternoon

with some cold beers and burning words

grilling chicken legs and thighs

basting them with barbeque sauce

and smoking them with the flavor

of all the fucked up twisted moments

from my life that I thought would make me

a goddamn poet

Then I’ll sit and I’ll eat until

I have to lay back and loosen my belt

and I’ll lick my lips and fingers clean

of barbeque sauce and poetry

One of these days

after that day

I’m gonna find myself in a moment

eating a chicken leg or thigh

and I’ll realize what I’m doing

and remember what I've done

and make myself painfully sick

I’ll swallow a bite of chicken

and miss all of my dead poems and

I’ll regret not being

a goddamn poet

anymore

so if I give you a poem

please keep it

for me

One of these days

it will be worth

something

Reviews

[Bob Sherunkle]

F******* brilliant ! Loved every line.My kind of pain in writing.

[Dminor6]

Thanks. This one pretty much wrote itself. It's also the one I go back to whenever I get frustrated about my writing...