"A certain distance" | 6

"Come live with me"   I said to him at last
"I need your help to figure out my heart"
"There used to be a time" he said   "long past
when I'd shack up with poets   wasn't smart

I've learned to keep a certain distance always"
the moment that he said it   I could feel it
"I heed the heart   when poets pace the hallways
I see their rapture   sometimes   I reveal it

but poets think they own me   far too easily
their rhymey-dimey mimicry is painful
I've had a problem century!   some queasily
have said I'm dead!" his look was so disdainful

I lost my thought in silence   deep & placid
the sonnet joined my silence   mute & tacit



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