Your attitude is terrible. No,
That’s not it. You are all attitude.
You know, all one sees now are relationship
Videos on the “narcissistic” personality,
On how exactly men and women love differently.
Those psychology films are wrong. He lost his grip,
Hart Crane, the poet. And went over the side of the ship,
And in the rolling, gray waters was lost forever.
But you’re nice; you imitate Wordsworth,
And write careful poems, defending the prickly earth.
Meanwhile, you anxiously watch those videos
Invoking your narcissistic ex, counting your woes,
Trying to figure out how men and women are different,
And why love fails—crazy sighs within excrement.
You haven’t had a thought since two thousand three;
You read political articles, which agree with you, eagerly,
But if you saw words that at last could save your soul
You wouldn’t touch those words with a ten foot pole.
It’s not that your attitude is good or bad.
You don’t think at all. That’s why you are sad.
He’s a narcissist, and, of course, she is. And the sorrow
Alters, depending on whatever one happens to imitate tomorrow.
There hasn’t been an original thought here
Since the bikini. Since beer.
To know how much crowds hate crowds,
A crowd has to be in one, because alone,
The crowd inevitably begins to miss its favorite jerk.
But at least you get along with people at work,
Serving the crowd—which deceives itself inside its misery.
Have you seen a child, imitating
Everything—everything? All everyone is,
Men and women, are big fat jerks, all the same,
A great imitation and mockery machine,
Taking revenge against authority
When Wordsworth wouldn’t let them do this or that.
Two things exist: Blank imitation. Blank infinity.
Feel your way. Things seem to stick up, from the page, or the canvas, endless and flat.