Skip to main content
By David Barber

What if   it were possible to vanquish
All this shame with a wash of   varnish
Instead of wishing the stain would vanish?


What if   you gave it a glossy finish?
What if   there were a way to burnish
All this foolishness, all the anguish?


What if   you gave yourself   leave to ravish
All these ravages with famished relish?
What if   this were your way to flourish?


What if   the self   you love to punish —
Knavish, peevish, wolfish, sheepish —
Were all slicked up in something lavish?


Why so squeamish? Why make a fetish
Out of everything you must relinquish?
Why not embellish what you can’t abolish?


What would be left if   you couldn’t brandish
All the slavishness you’ve failed to banish?
What would you be without this gibberish?


What if   the true worth of the varnish
Were to replenish your resolve to vanquish
Every vain wish before you vanish?


Source: Poetry (March 2013)

  • Living

Poet Bio

David Barber
David Barber is poetry editor of The Atlantic, where he has been a staff editor since 1994. Barber has taught writing and literature at Middlebury College, the Harvard Writing Program, MIT’s Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, and the Emerson College graduate writing program. He also writes on natural history, music, and art.     See More By This Poet

More By This Poet

More Poems about Living

Browse poems about Living Get a random poem