song of the plagiarist

the older I get the more I realize
that I don't actually know what it means to plagiarize
I read a poem once then forgot it then wrote it down
now these accusations of plagiarism are making me frown
in a world ripe with fruit how can I be castigated
for plucking the peaches that genius has propogated

the smarter I get the more it's apparent
that my genius is broken and I can't repair it
I suffered a loss and I wrote a poem after
that sent my listeners into gales of laughter
the funny thing is in my head it was sad
but between head and pen something entered that was bad

the sadder I get the more I require some
expression of my pain that doesn't sound super dumb
just because i'm a bad poet doesn't mean I'm made of stone
it's still sad for example to go home alone
for the sake of the critics my art has to pander to
I stole a few verses from Ms. Maya Angelou

plagiarist plagiarist some people call me
when I write of the struggles that in my own life befall me
but what is a poem if not something we all can use
that's the whole point of alphabets according to marcuse
or probably somebody else I forgot who
if I got the quote right you'd say that's plagiarism too

plagiarist plagiarst I guess that's my destiny
it's not my fault somebody wrote this instead of me
you probably think that you're better than I am
just because you didn't swipe some stranger's iamb
what you'll never understand in your anti-plagiarism pigeonhole
is there's more to good writing than being orginal