Wednesday, September 24, 2008

September is National Poetry Month!

Mr. Manners Afoot in Manhattan

“Excuse me,” is what I should’ve said
to the person I clipped on Sixth Avenue,
but now it occurs to me that chivalry’s not dead,
but it’s old, and if old things are to die,
it’s said their time has come.

If you turn around to say “excuse me”
to someone’s back, are you an asshole?
Not “asshole” as in “jerk,” “asshole”
as in “guy who just wasted his time
because he turned around for nothing?”

I don’t know why I’m worried --
I waste time all the time.
But no one likes to be wrong
about things. Chivalry’s not dead;
it’s retired to a warmer climate.