Were your expertly written metaphors
for death and destruction
a result of watching two wars
that you couldn’t serve in?
Did you wish you could use
more than words
to fight the evils of the world?
Did you feel ashamed?
like there was nothing left for you
before you sat at a desk and met Prufrock
on the pages of your first published poems?
When high school students
call him a freak
do your shoulders tense up in defense?
And how did you know
the way the world will end?
Who told you a whimper
is all that we are promised?
