Everyone’s a Critic

“I don’t judge a book by its cover,
but I do judge poems
by their length,
and  yours are far longer
than your talent
warrants.

I don’t have the time
or the inclination
to plumb the depths
of your tortured psyche,
so rather than
typing out
your therapy sessions
with ragged line breaks,

entertain my ass.

And
can’t you
expand your range
of topics?

Let’s see:
your penis,
Christian hypocrisy,
the death of your father,
Anita (who nurses said penis),
your secret wish to be a bird,
your struggles with
narcissism
masquerading as altruism,
blah de
blah de
blah.

I keep reading,
giving you
chance after chance
to change your ways,
but you persist
in writing
whatever it is
you call this dreck.

I don’t know why
your blog is titled
I Hate Poetry.

You don’t even know
what Poetry is.”