Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                               Awkward Adolescent Verse

              Poetry…
              The authority of empires, driven mad,
              Threatened it so many times,
              But it was the rulers who perished

                     -Yevtushenko, “Poetry is a Great Power”

They stole his boots even before he died
And scavengers have eaten out his eyes
His flesh and blood commingle with the mud
His rotting hands still claw the earth, the pain

A dime-store notebook, shredded with his heart
Once pencilled with his awkward, juvenile lines
Of undeveloped images and clumsy rhymes
Which will not be shaped and sharpened in this world

Among young bodies rats squabble and hiss -
Someone will be given a peace prize for this