Poetry is Dead

Oh God, here it goes again. Remember, I don't care what you think - this all comes from rejection in the first place.

In the City I Fall Out of Love with You, Poetry

I walk on the train and sit alone like I've done so many times before. I stare out the window at the tribal dance of flames through Chicago. But this time Allen Ginsberg sits down next to me. I turn to Allen perplexed and ask, "You're still alive?" He stares at me bug eyed and retorts, "Is it that big a deal if I show up in a few of your poems?" I nod in agreement and try to mention how similar this is to Whitman and the Supermarket. He tells me that I’m ridiculous. And he's "sick of hearing about that stupid poem." He points to the corner of the train and says, "Go ask Baudelaire about getting drunk and then you'll really understand." But Baudelaire has already passed out with a ginger smile across his face. Suddenly Ginsberg’s head starts sprouting endless coils of hair. And then he's himself but seven years old. Seven year old, long haired Allen Ginsberg is my child. He smiles and drools and holds my hand. He whispers "Daddy" before thrusting his arm down my throat and pulling my intestines out. He howls, he giggles, and he eats them. Michael Drayton and Thomas Carew stare at the child smugly and whisper to each other. "What happened to the verse?" asks Carew as he points at my child. "No structure?" adds Drayton. They kiss each other and they walk off the train holding hands. The child Ginsberg stares at me. How did we get here? Pablo Neruda is breathing down my neck from the seat behind me and William Blake, etching graffiti into the train ceiling, bites his tongue till it bleeds.

We all get off at the same exit and stare at the flickering fire that is Chicago. Everyone dances around burning piles of Norton Anthologies and the Selected Works of so and so, and so and so, and so and so, and so. The child Ginsberg reaches for the fire, Whitman contemplates the scene and plays with his beard, I begin to cry. I love you, I love you, I love you.