On Our Own

When you ask, What can a poem
Do? you ask for you. You mean
Do for you, the likes of you,

For those you hope might like you,
Might like to change to your views
Or see in your poem their views.

You don’t ask, What can a poem
Do for that poem, for its lines,
For the words it’s used? A poem

Well liked by the likes of you
Has been known to leave a phrase
Or a rare, odd word in view.

And good for that poem. That’s good,
So long as poems still need you
And the likes of you to thrive.

We’d like to see a poem move
On its own, all night, in search
Of its own type, in our lives.