No, You don't have to listen (summer, '72)

Poems from the 1970s

No, you don't have to listen to my prattle
i'll not go on and on for an unendurable period
    though turnabout's fair play
you can go on living out your own wretched fantasies
    to the bitter fruition
or use them as pignasty ammunition
    but not in my ear
i care about others beside myself
    and their gifted or giddy ideas
those that don't cantankerously exhort
    my blind obedience to the letter zzz
pestering me with threats of noxious regimes
    or promises of no forseeable likelihood
in my betterment
    so naive compliance set aside
let's be pleasant for one ridiculous instantaneous
    'good morrow' of fellow-recognition
as when a fallow meadow warms to the season's lead
    we can sow our seeds or stones
as you wish    as you like
    that done we could stay on easy terms
or to make no bones
    for my money
you can take a blithering hike!


1972 (rev. mmvii)