poem

 The Critic

As the poems got weirder and weirder

Your synopses of them grew simpler

And simpler. Sometimes your reviews

Read like an algebraic equation:

Let x = the quadratic hypocrisy

Of the hypotensive displacement vector in bay 5.

Let y be the parallel line in a space

Without any other lines.

I certainly appreciate your efforts but

We aren’t going to be able to figure 

This out using graphs and numbers.

Do you see now?

It isn’t what you thought.

Put your protractor away.

You’re not allowed to say it in poems

Except in this one:

Yes, I really do love you

9/21/25