"What I Want" by George Bilgere

I'll be honest, all throughout my grade school career, I never enjoyed poetry. I  thought they were pointless writings that didn't make anyone the wiser; that we were wasting our time focusing on poetry (especially Shakespearean-esque poetry). It took too much "critical thinking" to find the deeper meaning in some poetry, and I felt like we dwelt on poems for far too long, which caused everyone to get burnt out by it -- which in turn accounts for the general mentality of disdain towards poetry as a whole in the grade school populace.

However. This poem by George Bilgere has really helped me change my mind a bit about poems.

This particular poem, "What I Want", is just that: what the author wants. It's so simple, yet refreshing. There's no real deeper hidden meaning (though several can still be thought up). It remains very poetic in its style, but its content is actually entertaining. And it's simple and easy to read!


Let's look at it...

"I want a good night’s sleep.
I want to get up without feeling
That to waken is to plunge through a trap door."

Alright, cool, he just wants a good night's sleep, and to get up not feeling like it's going to be a terrible day.


"I want to ride my motorcycle
In late spring through the Elysian Fields
Of the Rocky Mountains"

Sound awesome, a nice motorcycle ride through beautiful scenery. Love the mythology allusion.


"And lie once more with Cecelia
In the summer of 1985
On a blanket in the backyard of our house"

Awww... Judging from the epigraph, it sounds like he's longing for the time when his relationship was in its heyday. I know that feel, and I'm sure many others do too.


"In Denver and watch the clouds expand.
And it would be great to see my mother
Alive again, at the stove, frying a pan of noodles"

Awww... How even more sad, he yearns for his mother, and the comfort she brings.

"Into the peculiar carbonized disc that has never been replicated.
I would like for my ex-wife to get leprosy,
Her beauty falling away in little chunks"

Well that's nic- wait, what? "I would like for my ex-wife to get leprosy" 

I thought this poem was going for that "simple and sweet" flavor. Wow, what a shift. Looks like I was wrong about Cecelia...


"To the disgust of everyone in the chic cafe
Where she exercises her gift
For doing absolutely nothing."

I think this^ sums that up.

And then the very next line...

"I want world peace."

This guy's pretty audacious!


"I want to come home one evening
And find Julia, the new assistant professor

In the history department,
Has let herself into my apartment
For the express purpose of lecturing me

On the history of lingerie."


I wonder what Julia would say if she read this... And the fact that this is a published poem makes it plausible that she very well might have...


"I don't ask for much: a good merlot.
An afternoon thunderstorm cooling off

The city as I sit listening to Ella
Sing "Spring is Here," so the air goes lyrical"

That does sound pretty nice.


"And perhaps a stay bolt of lightning

Strikes my ex-wife as she steps from her car,"

That doesn't...


"Setting her on fire, to the unqualified delight
Of the friends she has come to visit,

Who are thoroughly sick of her self-aggrandizing stories."

Well, apparently he's not the only one who hates her?






This pattern goes on for pretty much the rest of the poem.


It's such a simple poem of what the author wants. But it's so absurd too! And that's what makes it great. This poem makes you think the author is a bit nuts at first, but then you see that it's mainly just satirical fun.We don't think he really wishes all those things for his ex-wife (well, who knows what actually happened... Maybe he does...). It's just plain ol' entertaining. That's why I enjoyed this poem. There wasn't really any deeper meaning to it.

Except, this poem does somewhat cause you to reflect on all of your personal and deeper radical desires; maybe that's what Bilgere was also going for...