will a heart surgeon at a party
keep an audience if he
crows about the amazing details
of the double-chambered heartbeat?
or would an astronomer turn
his starry-eyed spectators into
glass-eyed zombies if he waxes lovingly
about heaven’s balls of gas?
and does a poem about the act
of poetry pull a listener any closer
to the magical birth of word’s
than the delivery itself?
if I’m eating a good burger with fries
and the cook is hovering over me
spouting ingredients or flipping
technique I’d probably listen awhile
then tell him I need more ketchup
right now because his marvelous fries
are starting to turn too cold to enjoy
so it seems I have my answer
but learning the lesson
is a whole other matter
for probably another poem