how I undergirded a very heavy, cumbersome poem and failed

it collapsed under its own weight and fell to the bottom of the illuminated

screen with a silent thud only certain domesticated animals could hear.

with a new resolve, I collected the fragments in order to rebuild the structure.

I laid down a sloppy mix of adjectives with specific places of interest,

and when they formed to solidify a foundation, I laid a steely architecture

upon it, and began slapping and bolting elements of the poem into the armature,

constantly moving upward until I was certain the structure would hold firm.

then I re-scribed the wordy poem moving downward until it reached the place

where a “stick-the-ending” phrase would be in order to satisfy the critics.–– It held.

but the miserable poem was a failure, so I notified “Angelo’s Wrecking Co.”

who, with a large swinging steel ball, smashed it to smithereens, forming a new

sort-of rubble, and there it laid unresolved at the base of the illuminated screen.

in time I considered DeSpirito Barber School as an alternative vocation.

ahhh... those captivating twists in red n’ white stripes spiraling upward

until they disappeared into the cap of the pole, mysteriously functional,

and never-ending with a meaningful message: “there’s a barber inside”.