The Throwaway Poet
Thumbing through the offerings
Of an online low price book store
A book of collected poems
Of a famous poet whose life
Spanned part of mine
Came with a very low price
Paperback I thought
A book I did not purchase
When it hit the stores
Just five short years ago
Because I did not have
The muti-decibuck price
For such a hardback tome
Here the same book shows
For less than the price
Of a small beef roast
I would have devoured
With all the drool deserved
It arrives in the post with another
Group of collected poems
Only these two great lives
Have set me back
Less than five dozen eggs
And a gallon of milk
Depending on the market
And the health of the flock
I'm udderly shocked
These great writers penned
Their lives upon these pages
Published most in small
And mainstream magazines
Gaining fame and stature
And here collected in books
Post life upon this earth
I could Ill afford when first
Their empyrean language
Was laid upon gold-covered
Shelves in fancy book stores
One book in paper so moderately
Priced I could scrape the price
From my bill of rotting food
The other hardback in hundreds
Of pages of fine paper
Covered in preserving plastic
A library so gently blessed
For all its readers now marked
Officially withdrawn from
The eyes of educated patrons just
Five years after publication
Now sitting so graciously
In front of my eyes bulging
With the voice of this god
So here is your life dear Sir
For me to gobble and ponder
The fate of my unpublished
Life and mediocrity galore
But such are the lives
Of all poets tossed upon
The heap of burning paper
The fuel of my cremation
Another throwaway poet
Devoured by worms and years
Barry G. Wick
