Changes in genre take new perspective
And might require a true directive
From a bright muse whose strength I accuse
Of making me the type of guy to abuse
Formula so displayed it’s reflective.
Don’t get me wrong—this is no invective
Against any quick turns, introspective,
Or likely to feel like one to accuse
Changes in genre.
This sharp turn has made writing more active
And my characters much more attractive
With strings of battles they will win or lose,
Flashbacks and foreshadows bound to confuse,
I’ve not been farther from science factive:
Changes in genre.
Gnomes in the nethers are knocking away.
They open your mind like a heavy book.
Gnomes in the nethers say have a nice day.
They’re pretty friendly—well, in their own way.
They get in your eyes, share your mode of look.
Gnomes in the nethers are knocking away
Because down inside we know you’re kray-kray.
Inside the old bin we’ll make you a nook.
Gnomes in the nethers say have a nice day
As they get inside you like a cheap lay,
Swoop into your brain, like it’s on their hook:
Gnomes in the nethers are knocking away!
They are stoic creatures and hard to sway:
They lead you about by stick or by crook.
Gnomes in the nethers say have a nice day
As they insist that your mood not decay.
Ingratitude’s something gnomes will not brook.
Gnomes in the nethers are knocking away.
Gnomes in the nethers say, “Have a nice day!”
Lunatic fringe is a knitting mistake.
It simply ruins each scarf that you make.
Wear it outside in the sun, and you’ll bake.
Say it’s a fashion; they’ll call you a fake.
Lunatic fringe has no grasp on the facts.
It hears itself, feels surprised, and reacts.
It flies in freefall, which never retracts.
It bounces off real: that’s how it attracts.
Lunatic fringe decorates power’s halls.
It wants to preach hate; it wants to build walls.
It wants to make sure competence means balls
And police who’s who inside bathroom stalls.
Lunatic fringe is a fabric that kills:
Why does it occupy our knitting skills?
In each of our lives, there comes an hour
When we have need of more firepower.
We see all our enemies in a line,
And we need action of blasting design,
Something to make them bend knee and cower.
Now’s no time for some peace-loving flower!
Find caches of ammo—and devour!
Recall that guns are how the West works fine
In each of our lives.
Somehow when things go far south of sour—
Everything’s blown to bits—lawmen glower—
You know it still wouldn’t be asinine
To blast your way out, resist, undermine,
But know that failures always will tower
In each of our lives.
If I’d rely on me, that’d be why
I’d lied to the ones who on me rely,
For truth’s when what’s better’s always a lie,
As counterfactuals open an eye,
Which is as, say, presently, with a sigh,
But rely on me to chat like I’m high,
Carrying on ’til you just want to die—
Really, I should let this go, shouldn’t I?
Letting go isn’t so easy, you know.
It’s more of a pageant, less of a show.
Full of formulae about letting go,
They’re numbers, you know, you go, and it’s so.
If you relied on this poem’s about,
You might go with it, end up hollowed out.