Plagiarism

a poem by Dante Dapolonia © 2011

Plagiarism

A poem constructed of lines taken from

poems I have memorized while in prison.

Are you nobody too

from childhood's hour

within the lonesome latter years

come let's away to prison

among rain and lights

and against the morning's white

a noiseless patient spider

dare its deadly terrors clasp

my eyes grew dim and I could no more gaze

who pays any attention to the syntax

thou foster child of silence and slow time

whose frown and wrinkled lip

no longer mourn for me when I am dead

little souls who thirst for fight

nodded and argued much

they know not well the subtle ways

so on we worked and waited for the light

I have been one acquainted with the night

then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose

he fell with guttural cry at my feet

and there there overhead

for all the history of grief

everything falls back to coldness

how soon unaccountable I grew tired and sick

and you ate an apple

that strange flower

they come to show how cold she is

an attendant lord one that will do

to sweep the dust behind the door