[the Writing of Kuypers]
I have been pricing these things out:
and the only ones I can find
and so I’m seeing these books
and they give me that blank stare
and you ask them how much it would cost
well, of course not,
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[JanetKuypers.com][Bio][Poems][Prose]
How Much For Your Poem
going to the five and dime,
searching for names
searching for pieces of worth
are the ones by dead people
do you have to be dead to be thought of as good?
and they’re all expensive
(for someone who’s been dead)
even at the five and dime
and so I go to the counter
and ask for them for something by someone new
(that you usually get
when you ask someone what seems to them
like an impossible question,
when to you it seems
obvious and apparent)
and they tell you they have none
to get something different, something new
and they give you that blank stare again
and they say "that stuff doesn’t sell"
when you never put it on the market,
you think
and you shrug your shoulders
looking at the books by dead people
that you don’t want to buy
as you walk away
Copyright © 2006 Janet Kuypers.
Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers
on all art and all writings on this site completed
before 6/6/04. All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.
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