Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


EXPELLED by ALFRED FRANCIS KREYMBORG

First Line: I'M GRADUALLY GRADUATING
Last Line: INTELLECTS TERM, SONG!
Subject(s): GODDESSES & GODS; MYTHOLOGY; SLEEP;

I'm gradually graduating
into the more and more
ethereal,
nigh-unto-God,
know-it-all class --
I don't like it.
I'd rather be a dunce again
down among the A-b-abs,
desperately trying to imbibe
something from my betters
and never imbibing a gol-darn thing
except metaphorical
heels in the face,
which I bit
(wasn't it Achilles
was killed that way?)
and an eventual
toe lower down to perdition!
I'd rather do the biting
than be the bitten,
even in mythology --
whither I'm bound
if I don't stop graduating
(what was it
Zeus did to Prometheus?) --
I prefer
the earth or the streets,
my three meals a day,
uninterrupted digestion,
uninterrupted sleep,
the rubbing of a nose or two,
plus what comes or doesn't come of it!
For the rest --
hide-bound stupidity,
brute ignorance --
except for the cud to chew,
intellects term, song!



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