Shit on My Shoes

The mc compares the poetry reading
to a rodeo
but I've seen more action

on a merry-go-round.
The sound-guy smirks in the shadow
of his hipster cowboy hat

and holds his stiff
lasso of wire.
One by one the poets stand up

and trot out on their potty-trained ponies
do a couple of high-step circles,
rubber-spur their gray-blanket mares around the clown barrels,

swinging their tails at the flies,
dropping piles
of pumpernickel rolls

on the hardwood stage
and burping green and yellow cud
all over the mike.

The audience looks on
like cattle standing
in the rain.