Hot Desk: Poetry from Michael Stratford Hutch #2

ii: for example

 

during the convergence

the resident’s real success

was their invention of the

forced poem

 

a poem with no substance

no tangy flesh or love or beauty

no forethought architecture or structure

no driving force lightning arc great fire of creation

no kindling spark or seed simply

 

obligation default position or lack thereof

 

(really it’s no bother I’ll just flog the dead bounty)

 

in other words                 no poetry                  to speak of

with pile-up tongues

 

save poetic justice

who enters the stage of my thoughts

and demands the truth:

 

are you in this or are you fake?

 

 

---

Michael Stratford Hutch completed this poem as part of the Tasmanian Writers Centre Hot Desk residency program.