The question never ceases to surprise me –
the only one most men have wits to think of
when they hear that I write poetry.
“So, you write love poems, don’t you?”
over and over – always the same –
never anything smarter – nothing new.
I’m tired of having to answer: “No”
but since I do not write of things
I don’t have knowledge of, it must be so!
—
Granted, in youthful folly, I once tried –
but that endlessly repeated question saw to it
that the impulse very quickly died…