The itch of poetry, I had it bad once, Like a teenage allergy that bedeviled me and then it was gone. I thought I’d outgrown it. No words could make me sneeze or make my eyes water. I went many years immune to beauty, with no urge to speak. Never so much as a phrase, a word, tickling me. But I can feel it coming back; the itch of words that must be scratched out or they will fester. Come back Muse, and scratch my back.