Revolution

Revolution

If I didn’t understand it then,

I get it now:

As a poet exchanging

Warms coins

And prewritten sentiment

To earn my keep.

Watching old men

Cough out sugar and smoke.

If I didn’t care then I do now:

Ten o’clock cancer

Belting monotonous hormones

Over plastic and glass.

And as a cynic,

Catching scents and worn

Paper,

Learning life by the sadness

And fatigue of purchased goods.

If I didn’t notice then,

I will now:

Waiting for the bus,

Listening to the lull between,

The silence where I think about

Pasta and whiskey,

Or the way the space between branches

Catch the street light haze.

If I didn’t understand it then,

I get it now:

It begins softly,

Until is rises in ecstasy.