So I bought myself
a writing pad and
set
about to
write my novel
(a Spongebob Squarepants writing pad
which features him surfing)
thought (back
in parenthesis) how
great it might be
if the writing
became like surfing
so
“go
with the flow”
but then I thought
“shark” and all the paddling out
in the direction of
immensity, and how
straining and
forbidding that
must assuredly be
Homer
blind as a
bat
he couldn’t see
his wine dark ocean
or ping through it
like a dolphin
but did he
not absorb every drop
of Mediterranean mythology
like a sponge
like
a Spongebob
and now I need narrative,
characters a story
because I can’t just slap
it down there
all theme
and metaphor
when Paris seduced Helen
you can imagine how
good (and what
a lie) that
story he did tell her
but quiet I hear my
story, rising
from the deep like a
giant whale
surfing the atmosphere
like a giant meteor
I bet Spongebob’s hang-
ten escapade ended neither
heroically
nor fantastically.