folks give me more respect than i deserve
kind of like you do to a slow cockroach
on the street or in your kitchen, something trips a nerve
and suddenly both you and i are searching
for words to toss around over the noise
of life moving swiftly all around us
whether we're too old friends waiting for a bus
or an astrological impossibility making small talk about the holocaust
a couple folks will even say they like "my" poetry
and i feel a heavy sense of shame for owning such self-indulgent crap
if only i could put in words all the words that are in me
maybe i'd be more proud, less respected, and finally, a welcomed tie-wearing sap