A taste for drawing rooms has ruined more
poets than ever has a taste for gutters.
Thomas Beer
At the mandatory, post-reading soire,
he smiles and nods, trying not to look hipped
as yet another fresh-faced MFA
approaches, clutching a manuscript.
Thank you so much. Youre really too kind.
Oh yes, I agree. De Man and Foucault
changed my life as well. Of course I dont mind.
Give me your address and Ill let you know.
Some socialite catches his eye and winks.
The time I once spent with the muses
I now spend with creatures like this, he thinks,
as an earnest AP proudly introduces
a well known dispenser of tenure and pelf,
the author is dead and Ive been better myself.
