The Elopement Note
To all you clever people
who don’t believe in love:
They’re fixing the numbers on the public clock
& they falsified the weather report.
The sky is rigged, the clouds corrupt;
the sun’s a slut, the moon takes bribes.
From all this invidiousness
I heartedly efface myself.
To all you hipster intellectuals
who don’t believe in fate:
The verities come in vending machines
& destiny is a programming code.
The muses are but brummagem, kismet is cajolery;
free will’s wrapped in cellophane, conation is downloadable.
For all this ignominiousness
here’s your prize — epic abyss.
To all you supercilious cynics
who don’t believe in anything:
Romance is anachronous
& arete is démodé.
Sincerity is a double cross, matedness a despotic plot;
marriage is the in-&-out, loyalty a sucker’s bet.
Hip hip hooray for your ironicalness,
& boo-hoo (ha-ha) on my dumb happiness.
— Your most humble servant,
the luna moth stuck to your windshield.
Craig Kurtz resides at Twin Oaks Intentional Community where he writes poetry while simultaneously surviving the dream. Recent work appears in Aerie Literary Journal, Conclave: A Journal of Character, The Criterion: An International Journal in English, Danse Macabre, Penumbra, Poetry Quarterly, Red Fez and The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry.
Copyright © 2015 by Craig Kurtz
Cover Photo by Ira Joel Haber