memorial for a brilliant woman

Thursday, June 16, 2011

June 14 poem-a-day

Why Poets are not Optimists

up too late
assembling chapbooks
she hopes to make gas money,
maybe get a sandwich,
have a little extra for the weekend
for the farmers market-
early tomatoes, peaches, maybe,
feel like a success
in the face of so many
people grinding out poetry,
she doesn’t even have
what she’ll read
picked out
or her dress
nothing is timed
nor in large fonts
now she won’t get
enough sleep
she never does
preparing to tell strangers
her deepest secrets
they should at least
buy a lousy chapbook.

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