Upon Receiving a Mass Email from a Popular Poet Apologetically Announcing His New Collection

Upon Receiving a Mass Email from a Popular Poet Apologetically Announcing His New Collection

Humble brag 
With the requisite 
Performative aside
Asking to be forgiven
For sharing personal news
Considering the sad
State of the world
So as not to be accused
Of callousness 
In the face of horror
That is no more horrible
Than horror has ever been
The only difference being
We can see what before
Would have remained invisible
Being beyond the horizon
Somehow in some of us
There survives a belief
In the feeble self’s power
To be heard over
The cacophony
Like the white cry of arms
Knifing through blue waves
These have perfected
A style in performing care
Erring on the side of apology
The graduate student
Says she’s sorry
For asking for clarification
Considering what happened
Today in fill in the blank
And in the new poems
One can make out
A faint watermark
Under the language
Begging forgiveness 
For having the audacity
To write poems
In times such as these
As if this time is different 
From any other time
As if there could be a time
When poems aren’t needed