~ Jackie O Slept Here ~

I've printed
out
your guidelines,
I've filed and labeled
you
Blueblood Poetry.

I knew you were
blue-blooded
when I read
your Latin name.

Dear Editor:
  I adore your magazine and I am a faithful reader.  I swear -- cover-to-cover.  Please publish me.

Dear Editor:
  I can't get enough of your 'zine!  I wait faithfully for it to appear each month in my mailbox, but a month is too long between issues.  Please publish me.

Blueblood poetry
is not
written for the masses;
it is written for Blueblood poets.
All those lines that speak
of mortared brick and plumed horesmen
cause me to feel moronic
and small-
minded.

I will
most probably
never submit
my work
for your consideration,
    (You wear bifocals, don't you?  On a chain?
    And your coffee mug has a witty expression
    pinted in bold red script:
    THAT JACK SHO' DID KNOW HOW TO KEEP A  BEAT!
    O -- tell me my image of you is accurate!)
but
I will perpetually
worship you from afar, 
safe in the knowledge that you despise
poets
who use
but
as a stand-alone line.

I've printed
out
your guidelines.
I've filed and labeled
you
Blueblood Poetry --
and there you'll stay.

c. 2003 P. Gomes