Landfall, Pt.1 Poem by John Parsons

Oh, I'm sorry
Did I clip your heart too hard?

I do it to everyone:
Irritate, Irritate, Irritate.

I seem to step on a magic button
That forces

Etna to blow
and China to quake.

I attach a label
to my lapel, saying 'I am who I am'.

Someone reads it.
I nearly get smacked.

Society, that pathologically
hypocritically stupid breath of authority

demands, demands, demands everything.
I only have two hands.

I can only give
My language and my books.

I refuse
to forefeit my beliefs and my spirit.