For the 792 male readers of poetry in the United States

Appeared in PEARL (q.d.e.p.), a print journal, in 2011:
 

For the 792 male readers

of poetry in the United States

Since we are so few in number

I thought it might be nice to have a space of our own

to discuss important things

things of relevance to male poets:

like sports and naked women

So if you’re female please stop reading

Now that they are gone

let’s discuss the relevance of sports

in the realm of poetry

which is not much

and if you were to tell your sports buddies

that you read poetry

they would call you a pussy

though I might argue that both sports and poetry

are about pushing the limits of what is human

except that the competition between poets is much higher

As for the second relevant thing

my thesis is that naked women are a good thing

while the antithesis of naked women is clothed women

and this too is a good thing

therefore the ideal synthesis is partially-clothed women

especially partially-clothed women who like our taste in poetry

though it’s not a question of taste really

they’re probably just grateful we like it period

or they should be

and since we all know they kept reading

even though I told them not to

because women are like that

we hope that they are smiling now

in that slightly pitying yet mostly loving way they have

and that they do this while partially-clothed