I Don’t Understand Poetry

Photograph: “Go Your Own Way” by James Croal Jackson. “I Don’t Understand Poetry” was written by Jill M. Talbot for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2016, and selected by Jackson as the Artist’s Choice winner.
Where are these people walking?
They are walking in a poem.
But it is not my poem,
so I do not understand it.
 
And they are walking in twos,
so perhaps it’s not a poem.
A poem is ventured through alone.
 
I seen a sign, Smile if you masturbate,
so is that a poem?
 
Only if you smile?
 
Are you smiling?
 
Don’t worry, it’s just a poem.
I won’t tell.
 
If I lived in a poem it would be Ginsberg.
Because I hate Ginsberg.
And these people don’t know the half of it.
Walking, walking, walking.
 
If they get somewhere,
I guess it’s not a poem.
Unless they get to hell.
 
I may be overthinking this.
I never understood poetry.
I’m also stuck in a poem
paved by panhandlers.
 
I seen a sign. I seen too many.
I seen a white sky calling out
our less than good intentions.
 
But is that a poem?
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