Young Poet Just Misses Getting MF DOOM’s Autograph

I just wanted to ask about the mask.

I just wanted to ask about having a spare self,

a decoy for before worries. I wanted to ask about

leaving a talented neighbor my cloak to bear

the burden of my heavy lurid verses while

you’re elsewhere sculpting the scheme in the

next scene. I just wanted to ask about the name.

I could never imagine being

the lord of so any realms, with so many realms

within me fighting to escape all the time. Not escape—

debut. I just wanted to ask about the mask.

I wanted to ask about being a whetstone

and a blade all at once, steel against steel,

tongue as a stun gun weaving words for the young ones,

running with homespun puns willing worlds never undone

I just wanted to ask about the name,

the pride in becoming the villain

in places where that was all we could excel in


but I never quite got within autograph distance,

and that’s fine, maybe in another moment.