Friday, December 31, 2010

A Poem Must Always Begin with the Facts

I saw a crow
with a cigarette butt
dangling from the side of his glossy beak,
Bogie style.

I said,
Humphrey, my God,
how long has it been?
It seems like a thousand years,
since Rick's place,
Casablanca,
all that.

And I said,
did you ever, you know,
find her again?
The one.

And the crow said,
beat it kid, scram, take a powder,
you're blowin' my cover.

The cigarette bobbed as he spoke,
but remained in place.
And he said,

Go on, make like a tree
and leave.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes....ahem...the facts.

Bob Spencer said...

Well, I really did see a crow with a cigarette butt in his beak. Really. I'm not saying the rest of the poem is factual . . . maybe . . . maybe not. But it does occur to me that my poems at least often begin with something perfectly factual, and then take off for parts unknown.