Bart Edelman

Full Throttle

Let’s run full throttle,
Rev the engine, again and again,
Make up for every idle hour
We sit wasting days away,
Because we have nowhere to go.

Let’s cut the cord of boredom,
Throw ennui to a ruthless wind,
Sucking us bone dry,
If we don’t fight through
This ring of mediocrity.

Let’s burn down the cornfield,
With Randy Newman, of course,
Watch flames touch the night sky,
Until the moon is an orange pie,
Just ready for dessert.

Let’s pool all our resources,
Take a spagnanimous trip
Wherever the chatter leads us,
Tell the devil we’re on our way,
Demand God climb aboard. 

Bart Edelman’s poetry collections include Crossing the Hackensack, Under Damaris’ Dress, The Alphabet of Love, The Gentle Man, The Last Mojito, The Geographer’s Wife, Whistling to Trick the Wind, and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993 – 2023, forthcoming from Meadowlark Press.  He has taught at Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal, and, most recently, in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles.  His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others. He lives in Pasadena, California.