Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)

by Saul Williams


A Beginning Poet Takes Acid:
(and decides not to write)

Tyrannosaurus-like thesauruses
Near clicking dictionaries showing claws
Devoured together Latinate phrases
Before a poet, pen in hand. His eyes
While dilated, were caught by frightening
And syncopated slitherings, like scales.
Rogue pterodactyl dactyl's screeching wing
With onomatopoeia blood, assails
His senses, lost in verse, a world un-rhymed.
Before he feared his weak skin would be skinned
He left, and dropped his inky blade unused
Beside a fern aflutter with the wind.
Old sound devices, monsters like the rest
Deterred the poet from composing, stressed.



Sonnet, By Benjamin Weinhold