Your First Assignment
My roommate says I talk
With line breaks in.
Is this the beginning
Of the end
Of communication?
I read in the newspaper
That poets die young,
Younger even than other artists.
My roommate says,
“You could be cryogenically frozen
Until they find a cure.”
We used to argue about
The continuity of time.
How many times
Can you break a second in half
Before you have the primal unit?
Do we jerk through life
Like dancers under a strobe light?
Could you slow the strobe light down?
Watch a whole life in two hours?
You must pick one snapshot
For every year. In fact,
They will be chosen for you.
Your assignment
Is to make a scrapbook.
Blow each picture up
To the size of a page.
Beware of triteness, cliché,
The ease of slipping
Into sentimentality.
Walk the sharp white edge.
Leap from blue to blue line.
Yes, children.
This will be on the test.
