Major Third

The minute I am vulnerable
In a poem,
I just want to delete the son of a gun.
I feel a tight pull somewhere outside my chest.
It is my spirit breaking...

Don't make me have to do this
To earn my bread.
I am distant---
My prophecy erring
For the same reason Jonah's did.

I want to keep my reader away.
I don't want them attuned to my heart.
I don't want them knowing where I hurt.
I want to talk about lofty things.
I want to speculate on things far away.

I don't want to talk about feelings
If there is nothing good to feel.
I don't want to sing songs like this.

They're popular...
Everyone loves them.
Everyone loves to hear the heartache
Everyone wants to see the vulnerabilities.

Don't you understand I'd rather talk politics
And religion
And philosophy
And art
And science
And math
And sociology
And psychology
And history
And mythology
And nature

And not talk about my feelings?
I'd rather not talk about my feelings.
An autobiography of life
Is not something I want to write.

Everyone wants an autobiography.
My life's too painful to write it.
Save in fables.