Don’t rhyme “June” with “spoon,”
unless maybe it’s one
that’s bent back & tarred black,
nor “moon” with “June”
unless you mean the bug big
as a car now battering my screen.
“Soon” also is suspect.
Expect it to be the same
as when pairing “breath”
with “death” in a previous line–
the poem had better
have depth in infinite fathom
& the rhyme, at least
one reason for being
besides the chime. Time is not
on your side, friend.
The end is too near to waste
even one unstressed beat
on a repeat of anything.
Yes, it will take some work.
Wait, do I hear you complain?
So you impressed yourself
slant-rhyming “duende”
with “pudendum,” but look—
already been done
& more than one time. Ditto
for subbing in “dog”
for its reverse rhyme, “God.”
It’s true both are dead
so far as I know, but—never mind.
The point not to repeat
a tired trope. The point is to hope
things will be better or different
—at least try to make language new—
I triple-God dare you.
Rebecca Foust’s seventh book, ONLY (Four Way Books 2022) earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was featured on the Academy of American Poets 2022 Fall Books List. Her poems, published widely in journals including The Common, Narrative, POETRY, Ploughshares, and Southern Review, won the 2023 New Ohio Review prize and were runner-up for the 2022 Missouri Review Editors Prize.