suffer the young poets to come
they are already good – most –
what they need – like it or not –
is a heavy-handed teach with a
heart of steel and a mind of
compassion….  The other way
around?  the behavior education
model?  nope.  Whitman
wannabe’s will do it on their own?
nope.  Dickinson’s to be discovered
in yellow paper letters in death?  
spinsterhood to be canonized like
Lorca?  there are laureates in front
of me, standing tall at the podium –
life is to be lived, words to be spit
out with relish, juxtaposing music
with tears – letting ambition curdle
and toss away transience – Amen.

© Lewis Bosworth, 9/16