0102 This Is A Disposable Poem Poem by Michael Shepherd

This is a disposable poem.
Under each stanza
is a perforated line

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you may read it stanza by stanza
and throw away each as you read
or having it read it through,
shorten it stanza by stanza

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since many poems on this site
benefit from curtailing
because amateur poets
tend to be uncertain
about their work

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and as a result either repeat
the essence of their poem at the end
or comment on it which takes
the power out of it

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you might want to save that
previous stanza but as for
the other stanzas, here’s
a suggestion
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enjoy being a critic and
dispose of them with a flourish
in one of these ways
certainly not both for reasons
which will become apparent

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one method is to place
a waste-paper basket so called
at an optimum distance
far enough away to enjoy throwing
the ball of scrunch-up

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but near enough not to miss;
do it with a flourish,
feel good, feel judgmental,
feel superior, feel right

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or alternatively take this disposable poem
into the smallest room to read
for as long as it takes, this varies,
then put it behind you so to speak

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again with a decisive gesture
though of course due care and
you may wish to accompany this
with some rather biblical utterance

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such as, I shit in judgment upon
the works of the ungodly
and as for the works of the infidel
I put them behind me

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and they shall be carried away
by the waters of righteousness yea
as though they had never been

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aaah that felt good