I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by ponies—

[i]Wait. What?[/i]

—prancing hysterical naked—

[i]You never saw anything of the sort! I mean, you've only ever even talked face-to-face to, like, five other fans![/i]

—pronking themselves through the suburban streets at dawn looking for a friendship fix—

[i]Yeah, okay, I'm suspending your poetic license, buddy. You wanna step away from the keyboard, please?[/i]

Excuse me, but I'm trying to make a point.

[i]By parodying Ginsberg? Has anyone ever made a successful point by doing that?[/i]

I didn't say I was trying to make a [u]successful[/u] point.

[i]Yeah, okay. Why start trying for success now?[/i]

Exactly. After all, those of us who don't doom the past are learning to repeat it.

[i]Wait. What?[/i]

Too late! I'm off again!

—Luna-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night—

[i]This isn't even a poetry round! You can just say what you want to say without getting all weird and allegorical about it![/i]

I always say what I want to say whether it's poetry or prose. That's honesty, right?

[i]You're not gonna go through all six, are you?[/i]

I've still got two hundred more words before I cross the minific threshold. I might as well.

[i]No. Just no. This meta stuff gets old mighty fast. If you've got something to say, just say it, and we can all get on with our lives.[/i]

Oh, I've got something to say, all right. But I can't imagine it's likely to be terribly interesting to anyone else.

[i]Then why are you clogging up the public internet with it? Can't you just say it in the comfort and convenience of your own home and leave the rest of us out of it?[/i]

I don't know how to break this to you, but there's only one person here. I mean, how long has if been since we've had more than a single entry in any of these Pony rounds?

[i]Checking the archives says just over nine months, back in March of 2025 when Baal and georg both submitted stories.[/i]

In other words:

—who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up typing in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating ponies—

[i]No! No more Ginsberg![/i]

—who bared their brains to Celestia under Canterlot Tower and saw unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies dancing on cantilevered roofs illuminated—

[i]I mean it! Ginsberg's poem is about darkness and destruction and death! Ponies aren't about that at all![/i]

So you [u]do[/u] care.

[i]Shut up...[/i]

Besides, the footnote that ends the poem concludes with:

Holy forgiveness! mercy! charity! faith! Holy! Ours! bodies! suffering! magnanimity!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!

[i]Really? With that "kindness" in there and everything?[/i]

Yeah. And [u]that's[/u] pretty much all I wanted to say.

[i]But with ponies.[/i]

Always. And besides, even though I forgot to submit a prompt, I didn't want to risk the first Writeoff of the new year going by without any entries.

[i]Umm, this [u]isn't[/u] the first Writeoff of the new year. There was a poetry round earlier in the week.[/i]

Ah. Well, never mind, then.