Browsing Bargain Poetry

[pantryslut]

Browsing the bargain poetry section seems almost shameful; at the same time it’s gratifying that there’s even a bargain poetry section to shop, but still, you know how much poets make on their books, it’s not like browsing the bargain cookbooks, cookbook authors must get paid bushels, they even get to go on TV and they don’t have to answer stupid questions like “where do you get your ideas?”, they just have to open the oven and like magic, the dish is there, photo perfect, and the hosts all smile as they chew and their eyes open wide with delight and that’s it, the chef’s a star. Lunch was not noteworthy and so you’re looking for a different kind of sustenance, but you don’t want to rip off a live and struggling author so you skip all the names that you know. There’s one book, it’s called “Against Love Poetry,” sounds promising but the title poem isn’t very good. There’s another, by John Ashbery, he’s famous, he's probably got an academic position, with tenure, he can take the hit, and you hate his poetry anyway so it’s almost fair. Your partner likes him, it could be a gift, but thinking about his lines makes you see snarls in poorly-combed hair, so you put it back. A dead poet might do. You can’t take bread out of the mouth of a dead poet. There’s a book of poetry on the shelf by a dead poet you once met, Joseph Brodsky. Or was it that other one, the Polish guy whose name you’ve forgotten? That’s what you told everyone the last time you told this story, but now you think you might be mistaken, it was the kindly Russian on the couch, chatting with a colleague and allowing the aspirants surrounding him to overhear, to ask a question once in a while even. But the book is Nativity Poems and you don’t believe in Christmas or at least Christ, not in late January at any rate, not with rain threatening and a need for just a small bite, a cookie, a crumb of cadence and rhythm and something more if you’re lucky, but you’re not, not today, and you leave empty-handed. You’ll try the cookbooks tomorrow.