I get high when I write a poem you will enjoy.
And it’s the simple goal which pleases me: I imagine people feel a lot of anxiety
when they begin a poem, and maybe I do, too
but it’s profound to think it’s only a conversation with you
when, for once, my tyrannical ex-lover,
we will simply be on the same page,
you reading my poem, as you and I age.
And that’s it. Death is surging over the land even now,
wiping out not only poets, but their poems
(history won’t read them)
but if you read mine
I’ll defeat self, death, critics drinking out on the avenue, time.
That you enjoy it while you read it is all that matters.
Everything else about poetry is nonsense,
vanity, some creepy jerk who flatters.