How not to read poetry
by Jay Sizemore


I will analyze the heart out of your work,
I will agonize over details, find every flaw,
I will scoff at the use of a hyphen.
I will see myself in every word.

I will enter your poem like a sleeping man
swallowed up in a collapsing house,
only concerned with getting out alive.
I will see myself in every word.

I will jump to conclusions about empty skins
without seeing the blood and guts in the inkwell,
I’ll imagine the destination at the end of a one-way street.
I will see myself in every word.

I will smirk and smile to myself
about the ways I could write a better piece,
and then I’ll masturbate with my cell phone.
I will see myself in every word.






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