Modern Architecture
by Michael Garrett
Were I to
build a poem
it would not matter
with what great care
I placed the brick of
each word into the
walls of sentences,
or with what love
I arranged these walls
into stanzas, for soon my
poems would expand into
cities, and it would not matter
wit h what great care I constructed
the towers of metaphor, or the skyscraper
similes – would not matter how neatly I arranged
the syntax streets, or the thoughtfulness with which I
arranged the concrete corners into angles pleasing to the eye,
or what artfulness I imbued into these designs –
it would not matter with what great care
I placed street signs to lead readers to
their meaning, for my poems
would remain obscure as
modern architecture,
unyielding as steel
and my friends
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