Watch the ‘poets’ guzzling booze

grinning enviously (they never refuse)

the book being launched has a title that is easy to wear

‘Sonnets from Spooky Silent-Sessions with my Snakeskin Teddy Bear’

Rebecca Frost is calling the poets to order

switch off your cellphone & personality disorder

tonight’s dreamy poet reads like a Pope-on-Tour

a trendy-sonnet Pope rhyming ‘Teddy Screams for More’

and next up to set gums on verbiage heaving

Stopping By Joe Woods On A Snowy Evening

So, if you go round to Joe Woods tonight

be sure of a big surprise

if you drop into the launch tonight you’ll never believe your eyes

for every poet that ever there was, will whine before they wine

because today’s the day the poets are having a book launch

The congregation sit devoutly, the poet barks and stands quite stoutly

Becky Frost’s presence controls the scene

you dare not talk, nor act obscene

‘Tonight’s poet will be happy to sign what will

become a collector’s item: each book is so fine.’

All drink up cheer and talk so loud

except for Frost’s Ex—a well-behaved crowd

in arrives another late comer

he won’t buy a book: what a bummer

with hand-on-chin, rehearsing a line

he avoided the reading and only wants wine

he’s an Eng. Lit. Minor-Major Poetry-Trasher

the proverbial book launch crasher.

‘Who’s he?’ the back row ask. ‘Him?’ Becky replies, ‘I know that fink

he’s editing The Little Book of Printer’s Ink

that fellow is sliding, definitively down the slippery slope of doom

the sort of guy that would turn up at the opening of anyone’s slim voloom.’

So, if you go round to Joe Woods tonight be sure of a big surprise

if you drop into the launch tonight you’ll never believe your eyes

for every poet that ever there was, will whine before they wine

because today’s the day the poets are having a book launch

Joe closes the night with a few misquotes

from Two Poets Diverged in Yellow Footnotes

a poem of his that gets very few votes

those who can pay go hunting for food

in the cheaper dives and take-aways

while Becky and Joe hit uptown cafés

Kevin Kiely., Poet, Critic, Author; PhD (UCD) in the Patronage of Poetry at the Edward Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University; W. J. Fulbright Scholar in Poetry, Washington (DC); M. Phil., in Poetry, Trinity College (Dublin); Hon. Fellow in Writing., University of Iowa; Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship Award in Poetry; Bisto Award Winner.