Tuesday, October 24, 2017

New Poem: "The Professor's Dilemma"


The Professor’s Dilemma

What does it matter if we die alone in a back
alley or at home in bed, death is an equal
opportunity provider; but life goes on, and no
one knows any better. So you have a scandalous
memory, preternatural reading skills, and more
literary knowledge than you know what to do
with, and still you flounder in ignorance of self
and meaning. I knew Keats too, and his vision
of the world; but as close as he came to God,
he too died unresolved. A cold eye, judgment,
the dreaded axe falls and chops the poet’s head
off with the meanest truth: Sterling Professor
of the Humanities, seeker of Gnostic Wisdom,
what is it that you are looking for that the
gods of literature cannot satisfy?

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