Modern Morality in the Arts

A poem

Photo by Tamara Gore on Unsplash

Modern Morality in the Arts

If poetry is meant to be fearless and free,
why am I so afraid
I’ll slip up and say the wrong thing,

or that I’ll say exactly what I mean,
but some well-intentioned virtue signaler
will give it a purposeful misread,

possibly out of malice, possibly out of bias,
it’s impossible to foresee
all these motivations or miscommunications.

Here, now, look what you’ve made me do,
a whole three stanzas,
without a single concrete image,

maybe just picture me
slouched under a dunce cap naked,
pelted with rocks and jeers from a crowd

gathered to partake in the glee
of feeling so superior and justified
on the right side of history,

as if they believe themselves to be
the only ones capable
of writing it.