POET ALL STARS
The odds are overwhelming
Every time we play the game
we find ourselves on a level field
with the all time all world all star team
Homer, Whitman, Rumi and Omar Khayam
Wordsworth, Shakespeare, or whoever
wrote his stuff
It’s like always batting against Nolan Ryan on
his best day
Like trying to strike out Mickey Mantle, Ted
Williams, Babe Ruth without a hangover
and Reggie Jackson in October
Great poets never tire or retire, they just die
and still play with their best stuff
Soccer players today don’t have to play Pele
every day
But with translations and free agents
we write up against Neruda, Viello and Paz
Or heads up against Leo Tolstoy and Anna
Ackmanova
with an East German judge
But we play