Poems of February

I decided to put together a selection of my poems written in various years in the month of February.  Maybe I'll self publish it.  

FEBRUARY

 It was your hatred for February that first endeared you to me, old friend

What you called its "impertinent brevity," its indecisiveness and squalor

Though the heart of winter, it lacked all conviction  

Now it is February again and I wonder if you were speaking in earnest 

Perhaps there was something else under your skin that you couldn't openly confess 

Something colder even than the biting wind of that month you despised 

CROWS

 The crows think they run this town

Who could blame them?

They caw loudly and fly around wherever they want

The hawks are larger, but they don't mess with the crows

The people dread the cold and cower inside

POEM WITH A FEW COMMAS

I can't fathom those Rilkean distances,

hierarchies of shouting matches

I must take my sublimities in other shapes

compresssed and obdurate drinking song

botanicals, mineral resistance 

A perfumer's nose, but with the soul of a weightlifter 

BATHOS

My favorite trope is bathos

Instead of ending the poem resonantly, with a satisfying conclusion

Or epiphany

The poet pulls the rug out from under you

With an idea that's low, ridiculous, worthy of scorn

In my poems the bathos ends the poem before it's supposed to

As if in a fit of impatience

As though something more significant were waiting for me

Outside of the four walls of the poem

Really, though, I like living in here much better

I should stay put and make the poem last as long as possible

WASH ME!

You can write

in dust

by taking away

the dust

POET 

Poet, do you wash your clothes by hand?

Poet, do you hang them up to dry?

Poet, have your poems seen the wind?

Poet, have your poems seen the light of day?

Where did you learn that you weren't a poet

and what do you do to become one after all?

HAIKU

I told myself a story

It had a sad ending

like February