It’s No Good

      It’s No Good

 Grandma shakes her head.

“It’s no good,” she says.

Food, friends, neighbors, children, grandchildren, her joints;

All no good.

Tired of this, I turn on the TV

But find her there too.

The weather’s no good, the market’s no good,

Politicians are no good, foreigners are no good,

          People are no good.

The papers say the same; books and movies expand on the theme.

The government’s no good, the air’s no good,

The streets are no good, your money’s no good,

Your friends are no good, your lovers are no good,

          Love’s no good

          Life’s no good.

It sharpens us, they say; keeps us on our toes,

Makes us happy in the end.

But what if it isn’t true?

What if misery only makes us miserable?

What if a steady diet of death

Only makes people die sooner,

Or at least want to?

What if all the no goods are no good?

I turn off the TV, rush to my typewriter

Eagerly pound out a poem

Full of dire warnings about dire warnings

But Grandma reads it and shakes her head.

“It’s no good,” she says.