A Poet Saved the World
Yes, I know … and neither did
a dancer a painter or lead singer
who sometimes plays guitar.
But there was that woman
exciting the crowd with a couplet
first laid bare by another
struggling to name her own
raging revolt of having had enough.
And that man,
hopeless and ready,
who sat alone on the edge
for a tearful moment before
pouring the pills back
into the bottle because
of a stanza that struck
with kindred despair.
And that girl
who knew in her gut
that the cycle had to stop
and decided right there,
after reading the lyrical words in
and about the woods,
to choose a new way.
And if you want to go big,
like history book big,
there was that general,
from the statue, who
with shaking hands and shook resolve
recited another's fear of inadequacy
on the eve of that decisive day.
Touched and a bit embarrassed
the poet shrank and explained
I was only trying
to save myself.