Prufrock

Would it be worth it, after all,

After the drafting and the editing,

the careful words typed in silence,

Would it have been worth while,

to have parodied a better man, 

to say "I am a senseless unoriginal hack, 

here to show you all the words I can throw on a page." 

If some reader drifting by would glance across these words and think

"This is the worst fucking thing I've ever read, he doesn't get the poem at all." 

Would it have been worth it, after all, 

if some reader having opened it and read it through, 

would shake their head and mutter to themselves, 

"Was the second stanza really necessary?"

And would it have been worth it, after all,

if this is just glanced at as people scroll past, 

and my pointless hope that this is any good proves unrewarded,

as your silent judging voices wake me and I drown.