JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

are not things we wear

they wear us

down

 

robot hairdressers

and milliners costumed

in the latest

 

knee-jerk faces

they dangle us on

invisible strings

 

cause us to yawn

scratch

mouth puppet things like

 

i’m fine thank you

hiding the distress

inside

 

always put our

left shoe on

first

 

vote liberal or democrat

put on take off put on

that hat

 

rhyme all the time

or not

at all

 

sometimes it takes a bolt of lightning too close to scare us cause us to subtract those practices so regular and reassuring from our repertoire to take a new adventure do something avante garde or inappropriate perhaps discover the late blooming

iconoclasts we could unzip

 

before those habits

clasp us again in their

oh so comfortable grip