Manfred

 

Manfred

 

Main thing

Herb’s a sacrament

For the imagination

That people have

So you gotta DO something with it

Third World sang

“now that we have love

What are we gonna do with it?”

& so

While I’m not nearly high enough

Just a few crumbs

We drank the kool-aid

& there was a frozen lake

& an elk family behind it

& I had never been to such a place

But yunno I’ve seen

A reproduction

Of the Monarch of the Glen

Twas down by the Glenside…

For they loved dear old Ireland

The Scots & the Irish

Cousins

Redheads

Never having written about redheads

I’m trying desperately to get young

But I’ve seen too much

Hurt too much

But in youth

Seeing things for the first time

I want to

& I am

They’re just more subtle now

Compared to a Western sunset

I’m on the turn of the Eastern sunset

As I face the beginning of my denouement

Things are weird all right

It’s just I know they’re weird

I’ve pretty much sussed em

It’s sad

The turning of life is sad

It’s too late to get innocent

It’s too late to be reborn

I’ve lived through too much scorn

& no longer believe in my fellow

Other than to make smalltalk

& fill up the silence

The spaces between breaths

Now this is no way for a poet to be

& so, like Manfred, I’ll take my leave

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2024.