let them rot

Discard demonstrations of bravery, 

demonstrations of compassion, 

intelligence, style. 

 

Nobody cares. 

 

Discard jokes. 

Discard that tone. 

That tone is chock-full of rotting jokes. 

Let them rot. 

Let them come closer and closer to inaudible—

closer and closer to a quiet rotten mass. 

 

There you go. 

 

[Joe Wenderoth {1966- } 'Letter to a Young Poet', from If I Don’t Breathe How Do I Sleep]