WONDER AND QUEST

In the far future,
when my fame is a given
and my fortunes long ago lost,
when the literary detectives
seek to uncover each and every inch of evidence
of my inspiration,
and they look at my work
to seek some smidgen of story
to add to the annals of my honored existence,
what will they make of this piece?

(Will they note that I wrote ‘piece’
instead of ‘poem,’
and build theses on my down-to-earth nature
how I felt far too modest
to call myself a poet,
but preferred the phrase Wordsmith?
These are questions for another day)

No doubt, they will seek out my muse,
for they will need to be able to lay thanks
at somebody’s feet
for inspiring me to the heights
that I no doubt reached.
They will ask, certainly,
who was it that I wrote to?
What girl or boy
(for the future will have
much more nebulous and liberal
sexual politics than today
– but let the record show
that it was girls.
Always girls)
put my mind to the matter of writing
this particular work of art?

They will look back on this era
and search for meaning
using whatever records they can find.
They will scour my Facebook history
and the lesser sites
like Florydoor dot com
and jonbergerisfunkyfresh dot Tee Vee
and, of course, jay bee dot com.
They will study correspondence
and notes in the margins
of the coasters I saved
from gentlemen’s clubs.

They will wonder and quest
using whatever means they can
to find you, Jenny Martin,
and see how you fit into
my important history.
Will they succeed?
Only time with tell.