The Book of Five-Dollar Poems

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems
Ye Rosebuds are trampled to pave the way,
Bright Rage is snuffed out by monotony,
And Nevermore is please-not-again.

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems
We contrive Haiku,
Careful with our syllables,
Not saying a word.

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems
My mother digs me a pit of despair,
dying with her bloodied spade in hand.
My father says something
not very astounding, like
“Everything ends with ___”
“Responsibility is life’s greatest ___”
“You just have to fill in the blank.”

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems
i-AMBS oft-EN come OUT sound-ING back-WARDS,
But then the rhythm’s salvaged by the rhyme!
Keep reading ‘til you get to the rewards;
Blah, blah, blah, but then they save it just it time!

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems,
Right after that chapter
Ringing of cliché diem, we move
Into the acrostic style, which
Takes some word
And writes a poem
That cleverly
Involves the given word.
Next time, just
Give me a dictionary.

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems
Exclamation points can str!!!ke at any time,
Assonance always appear as alliteration and
Consonance depends upon coincidence.
Paradoxes are often oxymoronically rational,
And word play feels more like Pun-ishment.

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems
There’s a section for So-nots
Where love shan’t ever last more than eight lines
For Petrarch’s true love always cheats on him.

In the Book of Five-Dollar Poems

Centered is the style

punctuation I hear is for suckers
and
with
word art WORDART
W e r e D’Art
i t’ s a n

i i i i i i i i i i

i i i                     i i i

i i              eye                i i

i i i                     i i i

i i i i i i i i i i

for an I

But, in the Book of Five-Dollar Poems
Every p!oem is a piece of a person,
Every imitation underscores an original, and
Every word has value, if not significance.
Flexuous parallelisms and
Esoteric connotations can be followed by
A slap in the face:
Some poems are only good for
Making fun of.

12/03