20 MINUTES
By Russ Bickerstaff
 
20 minutes of time were killed
to write this poem
20 minutes which will never walk the earth again
their sacrifice for art has been duly noted
in all the proper journals
they will NOT be back for an encore
they will NOT be out to answer questions after the show
they are dead.
Their next of kin has been notified
the funeral service is being held right now
for everyone in the room who's wearing black.
20 minutes of time will never be able
to appreciate the contribution they have made
to the further exploration of the beauty
of the English language and human thought.
And now I would like to observe
20 seconds of silence for the
20 minutes of time that were killed in the writing of this poem
(close enough)
No animals were killed to write this poem.
No animals were harmed in the writing of this poem.
This is one piece of art were no living creature
had to suffer for art.
(except perhaps its writer and its audience)
all that was sacrificed in the artistic interest of this poem
were twenty minutes
they were twenty consecutive minutes
that happily sacrificed themselves so that this poem could be written.
I commend them
may they rest in piece
and in doing so
live forever.

Russ Bickerstaff is a performance poet currently living on the near-fashionable East Side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He’s been performing poetry for 6 years now. He is not an architect He’s not a conservative either.