“The key,” he said, “is to imbue
your work with poetic energy.”
Those of us still bothering
to pay attention at all
to that empty husk of a once
well-regarded, honored poet
had no freaking idea what
the hell he was talking about
and we guessed he didn’t either.
He was an easy A English course
and a few of us imagined ourselves
as successful writers, a dream
given that poets give their work away
and need a day job to pay the bills.
This was his day job now, his
only job since he hadn’t published
in six years, nothing, a dry well.
Imbue he said, no he got that part right
as he imbued with literary lethargy.