- for Hannah Bethard -
The ultimate goal is access to the real,
and that’s the raison d’être of the poem.
In getting there, we learn to think and feel,
stuffing eidetic fish into our creel
to fry up nicely on our stove at home -
the ultimate goal in accessing the real.
Nutrition is the ultimate appeal!
The hippocampus is a hippodrome,
and, as they race and learn to think and feel,
our mental horses need a solid meal
before we send them out in dazzling chrome.
The ultimate goal of access to the real
will make each pilgrim gush and grin and squeal
upon release of that ecstatic foam
that feeds and cleanses as we think and feel,
angling lines for popular appeal
to scan beneath the moon and midnight dome.
The ultimate goal in accessing the real:
a poem that teaches us to think and feel.