How to Write The Sustainable Poem

by Miriam N. Kotzin

Of course you’ll want to write in free
   verse. Decry the rising tide,
but scandalize the bourgeoisie
   with your naughty thoughts implied
and then revealed by simile
   and metaphor: Jekyll, Hyde.

But scandalize the bourgeoisie
     with your naughty thoughts implied
by clever phallic imagery
   (pines and windmills); you’ve denied
and then revealed by simile
   and metaphor: Jekyll, Hyde.

By clever phallic imagery
   (pines and windmills) you’ve denied
all hope of passing for PC:
   what you’ve dreamt you’ve pushed aside
and then revealed by simile
   and metaphor: Jekyll, Hyde.

All hope of passing for PC?
   What you’ve dreamt you’ve pushed aside?
Just praise sustainability
   and keep your margins wide
and then revealed by simile
   and metaphor: Jekyll, Hyde.

13
February, 2011

Miriam N. Kotzin teaches creative writing and literature at Drexel University. She is a contributing editor of Boulevard and a founding editor of Per Contra. She is the author of a collection of flash fiction, Just Desserts (Star Cloud Press, 2010) and two collections of poetry, Reclaiming the Dead (New American Press, 2008) and Weights & Measures (Star Cloud Press, 2009). A third collection of her poetry, Taking Stock, also will be published in 2011 by Star Cloud Press of Scottsdale, AZ.

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