A Poet's Choice Poem by Jonathan Marks

Do you wonder why I don’t write about war?
Or acid flung in faces,
In domestic violence cases?
Or about Suffering and Sadness, Inc.
Based in New York,
And enjoying a boom
Because of the economic sink?

Why do I avoid pollution, starvation and genocide?
And other such scourges that make mankind unbearable?
Why do I write about flowers and sun light,
And things that are bright?
And avoid the dark that comes in the night?
Covering multitudes of sins from sight...

Would I become the Poet Laureate,
If I wrote on horror and torture
And tabloid fare,
Showing I could face it
And really did care?
Asking for donations for lepers and kids
Whose legs are blown off by mines
Made in the USA?
Such taboo subjects:
Unspoken of - yet real,
In a clandestine way.

Do you think I’m naïve
To write about life?
Life’s beautiful song
And pretend as if nothing was wrong?
By avoiding the subject of napalm and bomb
And aliens who don’t belong, legally
In America,
And some who regally talk
About the desirability of a mass deport?

What about rape, murders, child molesters?
What about drugs? thugs? and deadly bugs?

‘Oh Raphael! Raphael! Get real, ’ they say...
‘All you write about it is Beauty at play
You think you can keep real reality at bay?
Life will catch up with you, ’
They say -
In one breath:
‘And you will die some horrible death! ’

‘Demons, ’ say I, very cool...
‘You see that pool -
That lake?
The flaming one,
Full of sulfurous fumes?
Go jump in there and strut your plumes.
Indulge your minds
With the horrors and deeds
Brought by the poisonous
TV breakfast feeds.

I shall continue to write
What I see,
What I feel, what I live,
What I am here to give.
Do you think I do not see
Your reality?

- Of course I do -
But it is for you!

My choice is to live
In waterfalls and sunbeams,
And streams of beauty from on high.
You think that is just ‘ pie in the sky, ’
But for me, it’s the reason why
I am here.

Now I shall go off to write and play,
While you bubble,
And boil,
And burn away.”
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Copyright 2009 Jonathan Sion. All rights reserved.