By Carlene M. Gadapee
—yeah, you, The Keeper of Pithy
Walmart Wisdom, O Bumper Sticker
Print Poet Extraordinaire.
All the good stuff has been said,
taken by you, who hide behind
your screen. Reams of poster paper
pasted on classroom walls,
in doctors’ examination rooms,
promoting I am loveable and capable
are no panacea for the ills of this world.
And what would Jesus do? He’d give you
A holy facepalm. YOLO to you, too,
you Bathroom Bard. I’m trying to write
a freaking original American sonnet.
___
Poet and English teacher Carlene M. Gadapee lives and teaches in northern New Hampshire. Her chapbook, What to Keep (Finishing Line Press, 2025), joins poems and reviews in journals such as Allium, Smoky Quartz, Touchstone, Gyroscope Review, Vox Populi, and MicroLit Almanac. Her new chapbook, Relearning the Body, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in May, 2026. Carlene is on bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook.