i want a poem

i want a poem
so shit-stirringly good
that every fourteen year old girl
who’s ever forced to read it for
english homework starts
crying and every fourteen year
old boyfriend who argues
‘poems are for wimps’ secretly
reads it at night, too.

i want a poem
so bum-fuckingly awesome
that people smile when they
overhear someone saying the
title - a simple title - one
word, ‘rain’ or ‘bench’ or
‘troglodyte’, something the poem
can lock in a submission
hold and squeeze until
it taps out.

i want a poem
so titty-jiggilingly superb
that even that guy you know
who always quotes
bad song lyrics out of
context then howls
because he’s so much
goddam smarter than
everyone else can
never make it look bad
no matter how slowly
or obnoxiously he recites it,
no matter how many times
he pauses to laugh
along the way.

i want a poem like that.
i want it so badly.
i dont need to write it
i just need to see it
or at least find a few more people
who believe that it exists.


from the March 2006 issue of High Altitude Poetry.

read more of my poems in HAP here.