One Poem by Bart Edelman

 

Refusal 

 

 

Refuse to come undone, 

From hoodlums holding me hostage, 

Hoodwinking me into thinking 

I’m neither the man I was— 

Nor who I purport to be. 

 

Refuse to lay low, 

Allowing a company of strangers 

Their devilish acts and deeds, 

Stopping me stock-still, 

Before the final verdict’s due. 

 

Refuse to sign any letter, 

Claiming my many indiscretions— 

The least of which explains 

How I mistook the night 

For the morning I was after. 

 

Refuse to jump higher, 

Than I can possibly leap, 

As long as both feet 

Never leave the ground, 

And there’s a wafer in my pocket. 

 

Refuse to worship blather— 

The holier, the better— 

Marry whomever I please, 

Since I’m God’s only son. 

Bid good riddance to this cross.

Bart Edelman’s poetry collections include Crossing the Hackensack (Prometheus Press), Under Damaris’ Dress (Lightning Publications), The Alphabet of Love (Red Hen Press), The Gentle Man (Red Hen Press), The Last Mojito (Red Hen Press), The Geographer’s Wife (Red Hen Press), Whistling to Trick the Wind (Meadowlark Press), and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993 – 2023 (Meadowlark Press).  He has taught at Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal, and, most recently, in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles.  His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others. He lives in Pasadena, California.

bedelman@glendale.edu

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