If I Had Written the Declaration of Independence

If I had written

the Declaration of Independence

no one would have gathered

to solemnly sign it.

No parents would pack sack lunches

hundreds of years later

so that yellow busloads of children

could press their complacent noses

against the glass put there to shield

The Document from complacent noses.

No scholar would expound,

no Dear Leader betray,

nor any patriots rally to defend

a single word of mine.

No blame to them, I just

wouldn't get it right.

Politics? Governance? Something about

“un-aliens” and chasing happiness…?

Where was I?

Oh yes—If I had written

the Declaration of Independence

it would have spawned

a fearsome empire

of hermit poets,

or more accurately,

The Empire of The Poet.

One poet,

one window,

one pencil hovering,

one cup of coffee, neglected

while I survey the realm—

Free.