is it important to rhyme?
do the cool kids care?
will they give me the time
if the 4th line ends in a different sound than line B?


the nature of poetry's changed
we've given up the rules
we allow a greater range
of thoughts and rhythms and forms and types and schemes and what not


you can even follow tradition
writing old-school poems
but make it special edition
by ******* with people's minds and changing one little structural thing mwahaha


will this trend stick?
can i name this new style?
or should i just pick
whatever words come to mind to wrap up this so-called-poem
and make people wonder what the hell they just read?

the words will come
just let them

the words will pour forth
without prior consideration of the meaning they'll produce

sometimes words have a tendency to do that
those fickle little things

little grunts and clicks and hisses and waaahs
that somehow collaborate
better than any set of politicians the world has seen

or sometimes create more chaos
more confusion
more discord

than if they'd never been uttered

so be careful with those words
those fickle little things

More words have been spilled
Over staying up too late
Than any other **** subject
That ever comes to this tired mind

When the nights drag on to mornings
And I wonder
Why the hell I'm still awake
There's nothing left to do
But turn that angst into words
And slap them down on a page
And pray that at my age
That lyrical Ambien
Knocks me right out

I've written more poems and dissertations about my bedtime
Than minutes
I sleep each night
Than pillows and sheets
I've owned in my life
Than times
I've ever made the bed
Than bedside books
I've ever read
Than midnight snacks
I've tried to sneak
Than my family's cumulative
REM cycles per week
Than my lifetime
Running count of sheep
Than strategies
I've tried to go to sleep

But when the clock strikes
oh-my-god-is-that-the-actual-time
Before I lay down my head
In the end
I won't go to bed
I'll give in again
And let the words flow
Cause staying up late
Is all that I know