I Knew A Poet

I knew a poet once

We were teenagers sharing corridors

He wrote with trench deep truth

Effortless and shaming

He was poet and poem

And painfully beaten by a society that broke men of this beauty

A handful knew of his damning talent

And any speculation that surfaced was eradicated promptly

Some secrets need to be buried he’d say

He was hardened and built for other uses

The anvil that could suffer for another’s trade

Bearing the searing flame and pounding hammer

But never acknowledged as it’s own art in sheer design and purpose

I knew this very poet once

And the pounding he accepted as the fuel for greatness
Still beats rhythm in my head 

E.A. O'Connell