failure / bad poem

You’re the reason poets write,

even if it’s a bad poem – but in a way --

especially if it’s a bad poem. Hear me

out – for you cleave their tongue 

with your beauty, in every sense. 

But don’t trust me, because this poem 

is a failure. The meter is broken; 

the poesy is forced – which is so unlike

that feeling for you. That I live with. 

That somehow defines me, or

I want it to. Because loving you is like

breathing, like every cliché –

which is why I destroyed this sonnet with a beating heart

like an earthquake that destroys every other thought.

Michael T. Smith is an Associate Professor of English who teaches both writing and film courses. He has published roughly 300 pieces (poetry and prose) in over 100 different journals.