“The Last Crummy Poem?” by James Valvis

As most poems I write
Are not worthy of me
And most poems you read
Are not worthy of you
This poem is not worthy

Consider this

If the bombs should fall
All over the world
While I write this
This crummy poem would be
The last poem ever penned

And consider this also

If the bombs should fall
All over the world
While you read this
This crummy poem would be
The last poem ever read

Imagine

Everything and everyone: bombed
All the things we loved: bombed
All the things we hated: bombed

All the great poems
I could have written:
You could have read:

Bombed

And here I sit writing
And there you sit reading

This crummy poem

Considering this

I think I should be writing
Something better
Being someone better

And you should be reading
Something better
Being someone better

Though what and what
And who and who
I have no idea
And you have no idea
And mankind itself has no idea

And maybe this is why
I wrote this crummy poem

Why you read this crummy poem

And why we have the crummy bombs

---

James Valvis is the author of How to Say Goodbye (Aortic Books, 2011). His poems or stories have appeared in journals such as Anderbo, Arts & Letters, Barrow Street, Baltimore Review, Hanging Loose, LA Review, Nimrod, Rattle, River Styx, Vestal Review, and many others. His poetry has been featured in Verse Daily and the Best American Poetry website. His fiction was chosen for the 2013 Sundress Best of the Net. A former US Army soldier, he lives near Seattle.