The Interrogation of a Poem

You don’t need to analyse my poetry

Image by iPicture from Pixabay

Choose one poem of mine, I ask,
and put it to your ear.
What does it whisper to you?
Is there anything to hear?

Take a step inside my poem
with a blindfold on your eyes.
Can you feel the truth in there,
or is it full of lies?

Toss a stone across my poem
and skim the surface, please.
Will it sink into my words,
or reach the end with ease?

Hold my poem up to your nose
and take a long deep sniff.
Does it smell like roses,
and make your spirits lift?

Sail a ship on my poem’s sea
across its choppy waves,
but don’t look for past sailors
who’ve gone to watery graves.

They tried to analyse my poem
and tied it to a mast,
saying, “Tell me all your secrets
or these words will be your last.”