2010/09/23 I Cry Poem by Margaret Alice

I cry as I think back to the first, heady Poemhunter
days when we all behaved like little savages and the
emotion was raw and the words flowed thick and fast
and this was our house, our playground, the secret
headquarters of poetic gangsters, playing pranks,
expressing thoughts that should be censored every-
where else, and now we cannot post or contact other
poetically-minded friends because the site is swamped
by reams of ancient poets as if their spectres are rising
from the grave and chasing the living far away, we all
find a new home somewhere else, but loyal me always
return to gaze at the past, fondly remember the begin-
nings and cry for what is lost, why did PoemHunter
make us log on twenty times before we may post
why do old poets rise from dusty tomes and shout
at us to flee ‘ere they strangle us? Where are those
beautiful first days when we stormed the sacred
portals of poetry, shouting and waving flags, a new
generation of rhymers and poetasters and writers
of limericks and everything else, having the time
of our lives, breaking each others’ hearts and thinking
we were smarter than all who came before – and then
suddenly one day, PoemHunter threw us away as so
much chaff, turning to old classical poets and over-
flowing in history, despising this generation as lost
stupid and overconfident, so when I pass PoemHunter
today, I cry and cry…