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Virginia WoolfTo Jonathan Penton's previous piece     Ask YourselfTo Jonathan Penton's next piece


Virginia Woolf
walked into the river
with her pockets full of rocks

Hemingway
used a shotgun over breakfast

and you know all about it,
don't you,
you smug little well-read bastard?
Famous people doing
crazy things
just to keep you entertained

They said they killed themselves
to keep from going crazy
Oh, the irony
it gives your sophomoric mind
something to puzzle over
with a beer in one hand
home-brewed absinthe in the other

Until you find yourself,
at dawn,
in the same spot you occupied at midnight
twitching
with each
tick
of the
clock
waiting
and
waiting
for
relief to come

And that moment
when you realize
the bad moments
outnumber the good

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