i need a knife

don't bother me
with your Harvard poets,
your degreed
and learned
sages
writing illegible words
in rhyme and meter.
I need a knife
to cut through
to find the blood,
the gristle
of meaning. the bone
within
the meat.
where is the heart,
the dirt
under the nails,
the ache of love
and dying. a fresh wound,
an unhealed scar.
why do they
make it so hard,
for me to read.