powers
we all just want to know how it ends
each poem is a piece of the puzzle
when i was a superhero
my special power was to never finish anything
a type of immortality based on fear
to control the population of readers
and they would invest accordingly
in my companies that promised security
failing that
i would set up poems in shopping malls and blogospheres
to intimidate into submission:
"food's running out
millions at your doorstep
"your health is failing
there are new plagues
"bad guys are you
they can't win forever
"you will die someday
only God decides when
but he's a joker and even worse
mean-spirited at times and has also
got things all wrong in the past
i was a bad hero then
i wouldn't close off my poems
they hung open, dangling
now we all just sing in bands
tight little packages that sell well
online or off humanity buys it:
easy answers so's not to think too much
about consequence
but i've fooled you all again
what's the ending now?
are the starving millions released?
have they found a cure?
who won the war?
did you have a good day?
John Gillies makes short films and writes songs, poems, stories and novels, and works as a teacher, writer and editor in Ottawa.