people say words
but they don’t mean them
people write words
and they don’t mean them either
does poetry have a loafing problem

in the cladogram of poetry
who is the first beast on your branch
or are you trying to negotiate
a new limb

let critics scoff at your poetry
let friends, husbands, wives, and parents
scoff at your poetry
it is living with compliments
that’s excruciating
can one write poetry
without being a poet

Check out other work in the Practicing My Writerly Gaze series here.