Lest we Forget the Masses - Dec. 16, 2022

I wonder about us poets

our hierarchy of admiration

the poetic rank and file

the publishing royalty

a caste system that

the richly-worded lead

and the rest follow

Who strives to write

uncomplicated beauty

for the simple

the word poor

the sweaty and

hard-working?

I feel for the common man

his red roses and blue violets

buried in a cascade

of strange-smelling flowers

Don’t they also need poetry

to read at a kitchen table

with their dreamy-eyed coffee

or late at night by a fire

fed by logs of plain words

to warm them inside?