I've had to wise up over the years...
there was a question I had rolling around inside of my head
like dice in a crap game
that needed an answer
real bad...
it took a lot of thought for me to seek out an authoritative source
for the answer I needed...
I hedged on asking the preacher
who would sho nuff quote me everything from
genesis to revelations
and leave me to ponder more questions than what I started out with...
couldn't ask the politician
who would reach up into his cabinet
open a jar of canned speeches
and melt my ear drums with historic words and analysis
designed to dazzle
confuse
and unsatisfy...
I even went to a neighbor
and got answers to questions other than the one I needed an answer for...
I wondered how my question
and my picture
and a myriad of solutions to my question
appeared the following morning in the local newspaper...
so i'm wiser today...
I seek answers from poets
because they are not politically correct
and don't campaign for elected poet offices...
they tell me
that the pile of dog __
roasting in the grass of my backyard
is not a bed of exotic roses
but is exactly what I perceive it to be...
I swallow the honesty of a poet straight up on the rocks
and chase it with a shot of reality
and sarcasm...
I seek my advice from poets
because I can go to a church
and listen to sermons any Sunday morning
and still may not get what only a poet can give me...
the god's honest truth...