On Being 21
Finished university
and my greatest artistic accomplishment
was that I learned
my Arts degree didn’t qualify me for much,
so I rebelled, like most youth do,
by sulking in my parents; basement,
pacing back and forth most days
underground, as if waiting on life
or death, only to eventually get a job
for two days at a call centre,
only to quit because I wasn’t ready
to quit on myself,
so I wrote a novel
believing that was all the artillery
I needed, but it ended
up more like drunken gun shots
fired at Christmas lights
on New Years Eve,
so I wrote some poems too,
with one being accepted for $10,
but a few months later
that journal lost its grant,
leaving me thinking I had a poem
worth some money- of course,
I couldn’t give those words away
after that,
which meant I had no choice
but to go back to school.
© Richard LeDue
Richard LeDue (he/him) lives in Norway House, Manitoba, Canada. He has been published both online and in print. He is the author of nine books of poetry. His latest book, It Could Be Worse, was released by Alien Buddha Press in May 2023
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