lovely.

who do you want to be.

allow me to set the scene.
mediocrity follows me
into a dark alley.

i struggle
as his tail rattles.
is the poison of this
snake my fate?
i ask as
his fangs shatter
the callus
that i've developed
in the battles
we've had many times before.
generations ago,
when we strived to be more.
and we weren't enamored with the allure
of being a culture or society
that never defined itself.
instead we whore ourselves,
and allow it to be so that we
are defined by everyone else.

the question I have to ask is:
if I hold myself to the standards of the masses,
what makes me different from any other
poet that passes.
i will write
and it will be like bandicoot
when it crashes
through your front door like the kool aid man.
that's me.
all these others are poets are just lemonade stands.
i refuse to bland.
i refuse to be a copy of shakespeare, twain, angelou,
and the rest of the pulitzer prize for poetry gang.
i will be dan.
no ifs or ands.
no buts.
no question marks.
today. it starts.

-Dan.