parade the broken poet
for the vultures
an acceptable sacrifice in many cultures
you may not know it
in your time
but the crime of rhyme
has woken in you
a desire to bring down babel
and it has made you unstable
and you will parade the broken poet
for the sins of the crowd
make him repeat his sins out loud
we do not want him with his furtive looks
out their dealing in poetry books
we have him for the loose depiction
of what may now be his crucifixion
we haven’t come here to rehearse
we nail him up and break the curse