POETRYGreat Poetsby Scott C. WellsWriter of the Month
our great poet
drowned in our great river
trying to make love
to the moon
our great poet
of the socialist state
shot himself for love
or was it stalin
our great poet
was gunned down
then repackaged
as t-shirts
our great poet
abjured his art
then left his wife
their second-best bed
our great poet
who might have died young
instead became
a not-so-great poet
our great poet
preferred in part
to lose her self
on brazilian shores
but chose instead
a death in winter
our great poet
or so they say, threw
herself from a cliff
to break with the waves
when only her words
no longer her self
inspired desire
take a page
from our great poet,
dressed in white
with paper and pen,
she wrote herself
away
Scott C. Wells is a professor of medieval history at California State University, Los Angeles. His academic writings have been published by Brill, Ashgate, Palgrave, and Cambridge University Press. His chapbook, Persons and Places, is available at Skylight Books in L.A.
