Implications Poetic
Somewhere (along the way)
i found myself addicted to the 
word � not quite three packs a day but
enough to be a chain               poet. 
Tried to quit,
used essays and novellas like
Nicorette.        i went occasionally cold
turkey but i can�t stop anytime i want. 
Something about the poem
has steeped my blood in the cold angels
of addiction.

i want to sue �Big Poetry�
for advertising to me as a child. 
How should i know? at five that at twenty
Dr. Seuss and his slick Cat-in-the-Hat
advertising campaign would have
me dragging
a disheveled, track-marked body
to coffee bars for that next
beatnik
flavored hit.

Sure(ly) Whitman and Frost knew
the images they inveigled
would have me waking up with the sHAkeS
driving to the local library at
6am
to read Cummings
before i could even consider digestion. 
The Executives must have/had some
idea.

My work
is lapsing because
i pause             during meetings
to jot down the most
deceptively attractive metaphorical phrase.
My health is
shot; i sit all night in cheap
diners eating putrid food and chugging
coffee to stay awake and smoking to calm
the jitters.
My sex life is improved
actually, but only because
my lover�s another addict who
likes to fuck after we
            get high          on
Ginsberg�s air-raid siren stanzas.

i�m WARNING you:
watch your back.  The
poetic cartels
and their minions of verse plagued junkies are
out there spreading
the word
like a venereal disease.  And
it may feel good
but only the first hit
is free.
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