Confession

Of

A

Failed

Poet

 

For Mike Smith

 

It was all my fault. 9-11. The

World Trade Center. The Pentagon. Anthrax.

Afghanistan. The Israeli Defense

Forces. Arafat. The Occupation.

The Republican Party. Osama.

bin Laden. Bad heroin. Sharon. Coke.

The letter in the mail that said I was

wrong. Yeah, I caused it—My own back pain. Bad

Vision. Nuclear weapons. Satellite

dishes. Incomplete orgasms. Rebirth.

Malls. Credit cards. The Internet. Cell phones.

The West Bank. Gaza. Pedophilia

in the priesthood. The wrong side of town &

the machines that have overtaken me.

 

4/02

 

[Richard Wilmarth was born December 24, 1949, in Fall River, MA, and died of cancer in Boulder, CO, on April 17, 2003 at age 53. He received a BA in English from the University of Rhode Island and a MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. The publisher of Dead Metaphor Press, Wilmarth's writings, works, and materials will be archived at the URI Special Collections Library. - Editor's Note.]