I wonder if I’ll ever see
a banished piece of Poetry
of mine in print. I hope and pray
and squint; but yet, I have to say,
that I may not live long enough.
The Frogs are ugly, stark and gruff.
The Bog is ominously steep.
To step inside one has to creep.
The Scum upon the pond, like gauze,
does cover all with Ooze and Oz.
It’s filled with so much Muck and Sludge,
the wonder is one dares to trudge.
Perhaps some day, when I decay,
my Corpse will see the Light of Day;
but till that time, I wonder still
if I will seep into the Swill.
Bruce Dale Wise is a poet living in Washington State.
Featured image: Saint Jerome Writing, also called Saint Jerome, oil painting, Caravaggio, 1605-1606.
Love the poem. Free verse poets hate us because we threaten their existence and the status quo. Most of them will admit they couldn’t rhyme two lines to save their lives.
Lew Icarus Bede writes: “I like line 10. The Ooze and Oz are simulataneously the Oohs and Ahs of an easily enraptured, dragged in/drugged up/dregged out generation.” (Lew asked Evan to post this)
Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio
A black background surrounds a haloed Saint Jerome,
old, skinny, bony, draped in light red, pen in hand,
unkempt in hair, intent upon a massive tome
that rests upon a simple table’s brown, wood stand.
A skull with hollow eyes serves as a good book mark,
placed neatly where it is at Saint Jerome’s command.
The major theme of Caravaggio’s is stark.
Beneath death’s head, too, ‘s an unopened book upon
a brilliant white, draped cloth that shines against the dark.
The three seen books are brown, the pages white and tawn.
Here Caravaggio removes all from his po’m
except the basic. The extraneous is gone.