In my wild teen years, I took the car keys, took my parents’ car, and took my best friend across North Jersey, visiting disparate Borderses. Why, you ask? Open-mic poetry. Yep, I braved more than one shopping mall to sit in folding chairs and listen to strangers’ free verse; I even brought my own original works to read. And I swear it wasn’t just about impressing the cute English teacher. Sometimes it was about feeling totally cool and counter-culture as the local literati applauded and snapped.
Just kidding. No one ever actually snapped.
Call it my manifesto if you want. But I kinda like humanifesto. And if I were a real humanist, I’d use that as this poem’s title without feeling like a total phony.
Written, as you may guess from the text, at the tender age of 16. That worked out well.
For the fellas. This was actually a song-lyric-writing assignment I did in college, but without musical skillz to write the tune, I can only give you the words as they are. Please don’t judge me.
Sometimes I really want to be a pirate.
One-Legged Seagull, The Ballad of Rome
This will be fun for you — two different versions of the same poem.
