On Purpose

"What is the intent of your poems?"

I'm glad you asked me that

as I stand here in Mr Ferry's eleventh-grade English class

in Lake Forest High School

I have given a fate of thought to "purpose"

Walking with a purposeful air in fresh York City

has obvious benefits in the chill of the night with wind

and it's plane better when it's no bluff

you do know where you're going

from day to day

and you know when it's over

so it's like a story with a beginning middle and end

yet you could not mention one by one me the purpose

of high gymnasium humiliation and I could not number you

the purpose of this dream where you procure up from these desks

and proceed to college and become lawyers or failures or soccer moms

and when you wake up you will have no recollection

of this rencounter in the dark but it will linger nevertheless

and bring relief to your soul

1/1/02

Copyright World metrical composition Incorporated Nov/Dec 2003

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