When Poets Meet
of Robert E. Johnson

with the rats running
with them, for sustenance, struggling

from his left ear, pieces missing, lost in battle

left arm also, broken in battle,
off-white cast about it

with the rats running,
with them for sustenance struggling

low, no place, nearly no place for love remaining

wretchedness, so little dignity knowing
so little esteem sustaining

something somehow though, sustains a poet,
strained, broken, without a token of love

air and life alone left
must lift himself, step by step
until the water tower’s reached and climbed
until he can see the harbor
and the evening sun


© Obediah Michael Smith, 1991
9:25 p.m. 24/june/91