when i write poetry
i take the rules of english
as suggestions
made by a maiden aunt with alzheimer's
giving me wedding night advice
on my 33rd wedding anniversary
kiss his fingertips first
she admonishes
from memory
mistaking her sister's newborn
for the man of her dreams
she never married
quotation marks
missing
who cares who said what when
or why or how
poems
are fodder for the scatterbrain
feeding on itself
in a frenzy
of catch-up nutrition
vitamins for the soul
word figments mistaken for leafy greens
imagggine nations
roaring
into second place
with shame lowered eyes
spelling "beautiful" without the "a"
a fifth grade spelling bee
middle school social golf course hazard
the ball sliced into the woods
missing the pond
but also missing the green
rows upon rows of gold stars
awarded for perfect spelling
notwithstanding
capitalization
is for the birds
crows perched on the roof
waiting for trash day
and a neighborhood acquaintance carelessly exposing
the rotten morsels
that all crows love
the mighty comma
wallows in self pity
ignored forgotten maligned
OUT OF PLACE
no room for commas
when carriage returns do just nicely
thank you berry much
my poet
fast food word deliverer
leave us not forget the colloquialisms
the expletives
the borrowed-from-the-french
the technical terms with no cousins in the thesaurus
these fiends all exorcised from true poetry
poems, after all, are written to say
"I LOVE YOU!"
in a language you the reader want to understand
for a share of this lovingkindness
you are willing to sift through
word detritus
wade through undetectable grammatical fauxs pas
and put up with mismanagement of vowels
we can all do just fine without
"Rules of English"
when we want to feel alive loved
we'll die soon enough
our tombstone and obituary
will be carefully edited
for Proper English
by somebody who cares for English
but has never met Our Heart
