losing it in poetry

maybe it’s not that madness and art are directly linked
it’s more that art is the evolutionary benefit we manifest
to mitigate the advantages that we lose due to the madness
maybe it’s a reflex that starts to bubble up in us
to make up for our failings in more conventional roles
making shamans out of the deluded
painters out of the obsessive
bards out of the anxious
there are people who are so smart
they don’t have to be anything but smart
so beautiful they don’t have to be anything but beautiful
so strong they don’t have to be anything but strong
so rich they don’t have to be anything, really
the rest of us have to cobble a strategy together
from a melange of our weaknesses and strengths
to getting by in this life and
maybe art is the residue of trying to get by
when we are just a little bit crazy
maybe