30in30, Day 13: "You Have to Write This Poem"

It isn't going to fall on your head like confetti,

letter
       by
glittering
        letter
vowels catching in your hair,

t
u
m
b
l
i
n
g

to the floor, consonants dusting your shoulders like glitter.

It won't simply
APPEAR
in your lap, ooey-gooey cooing and sucking its thumb.
or walk up to you standing on the corner and bum a cigarette,
or come in the door and hang up its hat --

(Poems don't just happen like that.)

It won't take the red-eye and show up in your bed,
or show up like a miracle, right there in your head.

--Yes, I know your excuses, you've said--
but it does no good to fight it:

This poem ain't gonna write itself. You're gonna hafta write it.

T.A.B 4-13-13