Three Poems
Steven Kent
In Smite of Myself
No lover is delighted
To learn that he’s been smote or will be smited,
So tell me why, my kitten,
You’re giddy now to find that you’ve been smitten.
- - -
No Present Like the Time
We got old – we did, my dear,
Day by day by day;
Time can coldly disappear
Day by day by day.
Still, in sorrow, hope, or cheer
Day by day by day,
Come tomorrow, we’ll be here
Day by day by day.
- - -
Stop and Go
Passing signs, a broken bottle
Just beyond the station.
Each new stop looks like a past one
On a slow train, on a fast one,
On the next train, on the last one –
Look, we’re laying on the throttle
Toward the next location.
- - -
Steven’s notes: “‘Stop and Go’ was inspired by the similar appearance of so many small train stations in southeastern Italy. ‘No Present Like the Time’ is a meditation on what advancing age steals from us as well as what it offers in return; paradoxically, time somehow moves painfully slowly and terrifyingly fast. ‘In Smite of Myself’ is mostly linguistic silliness.”
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Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside (www.kentburnside.com). His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books.
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