The Uneven Distribution

Invite poetry back into your life.
Offer it meals and the use of your bath.
Make a bed for it. Turn down the covers.

Stab it in its sleep. Again! Don’t hold back.
You had the strength to give it the boot once,
Kicked it to the curb. It wasn’t enough.

It found ways of loitering on the street
Right where you could see it from your window.
It turned up like a bad penny in bars.

You can’t even accuse it of stalking.
Any suit you brought would be frivolous.
But you know, if you can’t get rid of it,

Its cruelties, its pieties, phony
Pretenses to being for your own good,
To being good, to being entitled

To hang around, leering intimately
Or pontificating to you about
The uneven distribution of goods,

The best way to deal with a creep like that
Is to quit just turning your back on it.
Invite it back. Finish it off yourself.