Inspired by: The Gift of Life by Andrea L. Harris
He likes how the music seems to loop
As does the poem
Letting liars lie
Enjoying life.
The phrase
“How hard the fallen
Everything” came to him
Right after
“The wind blows…”
And “The Sun’ll come out tomorrow,”
Was another additive to the coffee.
Did you have to put the elderly in?
He’s already half-way
To the end of life
And the end doesn’t look promising.
He thinks the elderly would rather be dead.
Their bodies get so frail that
What their bodies must say to them
Is like a bad hangover coupled with a
Lack of memory,
“Which is good,” he says, “if you don’t want to remember,
“But being alive is remembering.”
He says, “Put that in your coffee.”
Do flowers really bloom?
He thinks they just come that way.
And what is “Love’s hate?”
Is that possible in a rhyme?
He means the whole idea and all,
“There’s nothing melodic.”
He doesn’t cry when a child is born.
He cries that he doesn’t want one.
He doesn’t want anything to do with the responsibility.
There’s a rub:
“Aren’t there enough?” he says.
“Free will?” he asks;
“Have you ever been to a supermarket like Whole Foods?”
If he has the money,
He always finds something.
He doesn’t know how you can look into your heart.
His stomach is too full.
It takes over his thoughts and
Certainly there is nothing in between.
He hears that men think about sex
Every 15 seconds.
“That’s pretty awesome,” he says.
“And women are always
“Complaining about men.
“Hey, if you can run the world
“While thinking about sex every
“15 seconds, and drinking beer,
“And watching football, then
“Men are pretty awesome,” he says.
“No, there is nothing deeper.” he says.
“And I can prove it,
“Sun notwithstanding,
“Or falling,
“Or racing across the sky
“As if it had an appointment.”
Without knowing where you got the inspiration from, this is what the poem told me:
This poem makes us aware of ageing and approaching death, to an end “that doesn’t look promising” as we see in the elderly who lose their memory as opposed to the living that need to remember things that are not always pleasant, but painful. All this produces feelings of SADNESS and EMPATHY in the reader.
The children question appears. The he persona is tired of responsibility, probably dealing with elderly. For a child it would be too much responsibility. (I can identify myself perfectly with this situation.)
There seems to be a critique of men’s behavior in a satirical way. If men can run the world while constantly thinking about sex, drinking beer and watching football, everything is fantastic, but it isn’t as “there is nothing deeper.” As a reader I also feel ANGER, RAGE and REBELLION at this, which is probably the intention of the poem. It finishes comparing men’s too shallow and fast behavior with the sun moving also very fast across the sky as if it had an appointment.