Outlaws

Stan Rogal
From:   Geometry of The Odd. Wolsak and Wynn, 1999

Hostile to this horizontal/vertical plain
Diagonals are somehow suspect
Seeming (almost) to suggest
    some particular real object or other.
A figure, for instance, all erections & disasters
    slumped in a doorway, smoking, using a
       struck match to pick the dandruff from his teeth.
In truth, not hard to look at, yet, hardly
A fit role model.
Everything come from promise, now laid to waste
Forgets
an is what he leaves behind:
       bones, ashes or the butt-ends of cigarettes
       accounting equal weight.
Who is known strictly for being known
    presents the authentic fake, leaned back
       & lighting up a Lucky.
What bright-eyed & bushy-tailed could hope
Such brilliant
Glory?
Strange. Stranger. This worship of the unreal
    that frees us from responsibility
         & keeps us on our knees.
Sure as hell, atoms tend to disintegration:

the Marlboro Man or every other idol
Dead
Died
Headed
          for the hills.

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6

Stan Rogal's works copyright © to the author.