new poem...comments would be appreciated...but they are not neccessary...still not sure about the title...
so...here we go!
a eulogy:
Paper
white paper
once pristine, bleach white
part of a giant ream of others like itself
bought for 20 bucks at Staples
top of the line
now smudged with so much dark graphite pencil
now stained by so many leaky coffee cups
white becomes brown yellow...the color of baby shit.
Crumpled up by some frustrated, dried up artist
past his prime at 25
thrown out the window into a city garbage can
improperly disposed of.
Denied a future in some crunchy environmentalist
naive stoned hippie college student’s notebook
will never be marked up with peace sign doodles or thoughtless notes
illegible equations that will never mean anything but the pointlessness of math.
Dirty
just dirty
beyond repair
the only katharsis left
is fire.
Uncertain and afraid our doomed friend stands at the edge of an incinerator.
The time has come
time to jump
jump or be pushed
into the fiery pit
be consumed by the hungry flames
let smoke fill the lungs to the point just before asphyxiation.
Charred paper falls into the creases of that which is still not burned
the black spreads quickly and easily like unchecked cancer.
Yes, the only katharsis is fire
it has done what so much soap, water, and astringent could never do.
Now all that is left is the suggestion of what once was clean
left alone like so many pleas in the dark,
unnoticed as if they were nothing but mere whispers of dead children
in a world of dirty money and the plastic shells of beautiful people.