I Need to Write a Poem

I need to write a poem

I seek the flight of a poem

I plead no rest till I wrest this poem from this pen


I need to write a poem to my estranged love

And poke the embers of a fire fading cold

If solely to prove there is no more to prove


I need to write a poem for a damsel I chanced on

A damsel who day after day haloes my spirit with a hello

A poem on how the world can have no more to ask for


I need to write a poem for my sister

Tell her I’ll make it in time for Christmas

And why I couldn’t be there for Easter


I need to write a poem on the war we wage

A crusade on a neighbor that will echo for ages

A bloody trail to drive between us a greater wedge


I need to write a poem on a heroine

On the day I awoke to the dimming of a setting sun

As a prophetess embarked, and a planet mourned


I need to write a poem on a king in the great desert

How he betrayed his subjects when they dared rebel

And how they rose to maim him in the dirt


I need to write a poem to my grandchildren

Recount them a tale of a time beforehand

An account of an existence ever more uneven