trifling muses

it's nearly dead,

or close to it, but

its on its last legs, 

on life support.

we're talking poetry here.

no slam

or internet, or performance

poetry, not

nursery rhymes, or

dr. Suess on crack.

we're talking the real stuff.

the cold hard

poetry

of our elders, most now dead.

Larkin

and Strand,

Bishop and Plath,

Lowell

and Berry.

Sexton and Frost,

Carver and all the rest.

they etched their words

into stone,

not trifling muses on

the web.