for your entertainment

i will be introducing

quite a write

for you now

-

you are

all of you

welcome

in advance

-

please hold

your applause

until after the show

and yes

there will be autographs

and chances

to have your pictures taken

with me

-

which i will then

be happy to autograph

for you

-

but

at the moment

we must get started

because we have

not got

much time

(like this)

but quite a bit

left to say

-

please

stay quiet back there

and check your cell phones

i will do so now

myself

-

how embarrassing

it would be

to interrupt

my own performance

with my gangsta rap

ringtone

(though it might not be bad

if the timing was good)

-

plus

it’s not

as though anyone

would notice

over the inevitably

symphonic sighs

of you

my audience’s

shuddering inhalations

brought on by

the spurting

verbal

jets of joy

that I will soon

bleed out

of these pages

-

but anyway

-

i digress

(regress?)

from the start

of this poem

-

to finish

its description

you probably

would like me to

explain

what inspired me

to sully

the essence of its being

by committing it coldly

to the base medium

of paper

instead

of leaving it to float

out of the way

in the genius ether

of my enlightened

mind

-

but explaining all

that would take way too long

and would probably be hard

and i am not sure

i am so sure

that

starting down that road

won’t just end

in more questions

that would just take

more time

to answer

-

so to spare you

the mental anguish

of understanding

the startling

scope of my vision

i will move on now

-

to the reason

that you should feel

lucky

to have the chance

to hear me

today

-

you see

i have postponed

this masterpiece

many times before

for many

different reasons

one being

a tip

an editor once gave me

-

a good writer

never admits it is done

-

alright, i admit it

there is no poem

(it is not quite yet finished)

-

in fact

so far

there is only

a rambling

and immodest

introductory speech

-

i apologize

sincerely

if you

have not yet

arrived at this

conclusion

on your own

-

after all

it is hard to

think as clearly

as i write