Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 04/08/24

I STOPPED WRITING POETRY TODAY

I put down the pen

One-day no words came
The next day? Nothing

One month
Six months
12 months

1 Year

Between life
& Work
Survival & Other
Pursuits like
Watching the news
And each day each night
Seeing all the horrible shit
War Greed Frivolity Poverty
Simply taking over the screen

Watching movies
Just to ignore it

Entertained

To forget

What a boring
Uncreative insensitive
Fucking planet

What a bunch of fake
Human beings & billionaires pretending
To give a shit or even care

As the ultra- glamorous
White noise of white
Behavior the response to
All our issues & problems

Is To IGNORE

Do nothing
Say nothing
Nothing matters
Anymore they all
Own your sorry ass
Whether you admit it
Or not anyways so take that nice
Trip to Disneyland with
The kids or just go and
Get drunk at the sports bar

What
A
Fucking
Joke

That we
Have all
Become

Afraid to speak
Afraid to object
Afraid to raise
Our hands or
Even question

Our lives
Our leaders

Who only care
About MONEY
$$$$$$$$$

Fast food
Fast cars

Distractions

Congratulations !

You’ve been brainwashed &
Conformed how’s that
Credit score ? Can you afford
A house? who cares about
What’s going on in the rest
Of the world ? And remember
Only say something
If others are saying something and
Make sure to
Follow popular

Opinion

Yeah.

Just keep doing that

(Because you’re such an awesome human being)

Really swell

As we walk on by
Drive past the homeless

See everything around us
Falling into ruin

Do these words make you
Feel bad? Feel guilty?

Then perhaps they all should

I stopped writing poetry
Today

Why?

Because no one cares
Anymore no one reads

And no one listens

As the world all goes to shit

So I’m leaving my pen
To the next generation of
Supposedly rebellious kids

Who will write who will say
All the damn things that
I just said

Become anarchists
For a whole 15 minutes

And then?

They’ll get a job
They’ll get married
They’ll have bills
They’ll have kids

All their likes & loves
The music of their times
Used to conform them into
The next slaves of corporations
And credit card cattle

Consume!

Repeat!

And on the news it
Will briefly mention
Them and their movements

All forgotten
After the next commercial

Break

And then
One-day they to
Will realize

That their words
Didn’t make any difference

Either

R.M. Engelhardt is a poet, writer & author whose work over the last 30 years has been published in such journals as Thunder Sandwich, Full of Crow, Rusty Truck, Writers’ Resist, Dry Land Lit, Rye Whiskey Review, Hobo Camp Review & many others. He currently lives & writes in Upstate NY. His books of poetry are entitled DarkLands (Published By Whiskey City Press 2019) & We Rise Like Smoke Poems Psalms & Incantations. He is also the founder of the groups Albany Poets as well as the editor of Dead Man’s Press Ink. A small poetry press based in Albany NY.

His new book of poems is entitled RAW Poems By R.M. Engelhardt 2023.

His books are available on Amazon.com & also through Barnes & Noble.