Vanity Flare
Don’t get me wrong: I know
that knowledge is power,
that mystery’s water,
that hunger makes
a gargantuan
lover,
and yes, I’ve drunk
of the river Lethe,
from the breath of the Celts,
from the echo of
the bugling elk,
and yet,
alas,
here I be,
small and twee,
all liquored up
on song and love,
hard as rails
and light as air,
expecting the heavens
to throw down a flare,
to send in the clowns,
to burn a bush,
strike up the sea,
anything
that might mean
those cloudy bastards
have noticed me.
.
by Wendy Videlock
from Poetry, Vol. 193, No. 5, February
publisher: Poetry, Chicago, 2009