There was a crooked poem,
More crooked than you’d think,
which inspired those who read it
to give up, and start to drink in the words
as if they were just freed; it
was a crooked poem,
and it was hard to read, or unthink
the herds of scattered clouds
which make up thoughts that roam,
homing in on half-rhymes and gutter-rhymes and
(difficult times call for)
thought unbinding,
shoulders relaxing;
when the Moon is waxing,
and slight to our eyes,
it is still the Moon,
even in a crooked poem.
For there was a crooked Moon,
in the crooked poem,
in the crooked sky,
in the crooked thoughts,
of those whose minds slow their whirling,
and let the languid fumes of imagination
equally-slowly fill in the props,
the stage flats and the well-blended light
which make up the World’s stage –
(For it is a crooked thing to say
the world’s a stage and we’re only players,
an unkind thing to say about actors,
since they are not marionnettes.
Even if every line were predetermined,
every move certain,
it would matter how you say it,
and why.)
(Even if the Moon landing were crooked,
faked, like conspiracies say,
it’s not good to be hoaxed,
but what a world-changing thing!
to tell a story as bold
as walking on the Moon,
and if the story’s crooked…
…I’ll take it.)
I’ll take a crooked story,
for crooked minds,
in restless times,
find rest.)
I’ll take it,
and I’ll give it:
I’ll give you a crooked Moon,
a crooked Poem,
a crooked Sky,
a crooked Narrator
(for we could use one!)
This is the crooked truth:
all things are a story
all stories are real
all real things are crooked,
and the trick to sorting them
is to be bent enough,
to match or complement,
or at least attune to and admire
their strange, twisty angles.
This story
begins in a tangle
of brambled rhymes,
and it doesn’t quite end,
it’s your story now.
go do what you’d like with it.
My name is Jeff Mach (“Dark Lord” is optional) and I build communities, put on events, and make stories come into being. I also tweet a lot over @darklordjournal.
I write books. You should read them!
I put on a convention for Villains every February.
I created a Figmental Circus. It’s happening this June. You should go!
