"My Life was More Wasted and Stupid than Yours" NOT!

Just saw these two poems and want to share. Let's not ever go to the conference titled "My Life was More Wasted and Stupid than Yours". In fact, let's make sure we never even come close to being asked to attend.

The Fury of Reminiscence
The conference was titled
"My Life was More Wasted and Stupid than Yours"
and it attracted over 15,000 participants
who occupied much of the hotel space
in downtown Boston, spilling to Newton & the burbs.

For three days the fury of reminiscence
scorched the rugs with tears, oi oi's, and
why, o Lord, why?'s

till finally the theme fell to silence
and many of the 15k flew home
shaking with disbelief that _______'s life
had been voted most wasted and stupid
by those who watched the conference
through online hookup.

"Stupid! maybe—
but waste?! They don't know waste!"
shouted an ethnographer from San Diego
as he ordered a 13 dollar
bagel with salmon
near his boarding area.

Edward Sanders -

Edward Sanders's Let's Not Keep Fighting the Trojan War: New and Selected Poems 1986-2009 was recently published by Coffee House Press. He is a founding member of the legendary rock group The Fugs, a classics scholar, publisher, former bookseller, and pioneer in investigative poetry. He lives in Woodstock, New York.

I LOVE the fact that this poet founded the Fugs!!! Apologies to Mr. Sanders. The format of the previous poem isn't exactly as he made it. I couldn't get it exact. To make up for this slight, I have to include his next poem also. Timely.

Let's Not Keep Fighting the Trojan War

Simone Weil took a train to the front
when the Civil War began in the summer of '36

She joined the ranks of an Anarchist Unit
and picked up a rifle though never fired

She suffered an injury, not from a bullet
and her parents came to her rescue

She'd been taken aback by the violence
her own side had committed

and soon published an essay
"Ne recommençons pas la guerre de Troie"

which I have slightly changed to
"Let's Not Keep Fighting the Trojan War"

especially now that the Air Force is insisting
on designing all-terrain cluster bombs
able to crawl and hop for miles
in search of a victim