“Expand your mind,” they said to me,
“And read some modern verse.”
I did. If I felt bad before,
These poems made me worse!
Oh Poetry, what have they done?
How have they killed thy sweetness!
They broke thee up, dismissed thy form,
And ruined thy completeness.
I mourn for thee, for thy demise,
For those who killed thy beauty.
This can’t go on. I must speak up!
Complaining is my duty!
“Ye men of now, repent! Reform!”
Oh, why are they not hearing?
And yet I know: They’re busy with
Genetic Engineering.
They’re busy pulling up the world,
And tearing it asunder.
That smaller things like poetry
Are ruined, is little wonder!
– Aneta Reuter
