Sonnettics

Colette

Corrine

Elaine

Marie

Cosette

Helene

Bernice

Danielle

Lucille

Inez

Jolee

Lizette

Pauline

Cherise

She floats above the village streets at night
In search of some forgotten tale of old
Her ghostly form is beautiful and white
Her ghostly tale is one that's often told

Her life became the sorrow of remorse 
Her death became the sorrow all can feel
A ghostly essence runs its ghostly course
A hidden tale the teller can reveal

The teller of her tale this time is me
I saw her in the village where I live
She seemed to know the tale she sought to be
In me she found a teller she could give

Her tale of unrequited love and more
Of life and death, a dark unopened door.

I think the world needs sonnets to survive
Survival is the perfect lyric art
The sonnet form, a heartbeat still alive
The perfect sonnet dwells within the heart

The heart of every poet beats in time
With nature, like a song of subtle love
The love of every sonnet is sublime
Like rains that quench the world from clouds above

The sonnet turns its theme to fit the sound
Of everything the human heart might hear
It finds its voice where every voice is found
It sings to every person, far and near

Survival of the sonnet, on the whole
A metaphor of our collective soul.

The cost of doing nothing is too steep
I guess that means it’s time to “roll up sleeves”
We’ve landed in some shit that’s more than deep
It doesn’t matter what the Trump believes

The “shit” is his election. What the fuck?
How many millions wasted precious votes?
I guess too many like to press their luck
Obtuse to what their orange choice denotes

So, time to scrape up pig shit one more time
A job nobody ever wants to do
But pigs will shit like criminals will crime
And cleaning up will fall to me and you

Democracy requires work that’s tough
Sometimes it stinks, but we are strong enough.

This sonnet is an allusion to the re-election of Donald Trump. It also contains an allusion to a summer job I had as a teenager, shoveling shit out of a pig barn. I still remember the farmer telling me that I was the first kid he’d hired who wasn’t afraid to get in there and scrape the pig shit off the floor. I use the metaphor of “shoveling pig shit” as a reference to anything that may be distasteful, but still needs to be done. I think it works perfectly in this case. For the next four years we need to roll up our sleeves, plug our noses, and wade boot-deep through the shit as we do all we can to clean it up.