Poetry
The World Without John Ashbery
The world without John Ashbery
has lasted for one day
so far. Soon
one week, one century.
Will people look back
and scratch their heads
the way some do now?
I hope not. But
it’s all out of my hands
anyway, and I
won’t care one whit.
But what he did,
his poetry, that is,
is great.
He gave me a conjunction
and I ran away with it,
though it kept turning
me around, so I ran back.
And here I am
with a conjunction
on my hands.
My idea
was to give it back,
but instead
I’m going to move
the forest six inches
to the left and leave it
at that.