Rage Against Ennui
I could explode from wanting more and more
excitement in these dog days of the year.
Someone be brash. I need to roar and cheer.
Give me a spectacle worth hooting for.
Give me a quest, a test, an epic something
Herculean and exhilarating,
anything but interminable waiting,
waiting with yawns and umbrage. What a dumb thing
it is to wait.
I know, I know, my shelf
offers up Huck’s larks and Achilles’ rage,
but they are tired from leaping off the page
so many times already. I myself,
it seems, will have to make my own distraction.
Quiet on the set! Lights! Camera! Action!
*
Aaron Poochigian earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. His latest poetry collection, American Divine, the winner of the Richard Wilbur Award, came out in 2021. He has published numerous translations with Penguin Classics and W.W. Norton. His work has appeared in such publications as Best American Poetry, The Paris Review and POETRY.
I like the way this poem enacts itself. Fun!