Having suffered her share of scorn from collegiate elitists, the poet feels free to return that favor.

*****

Recorded Reading (2:43): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z6uzw6d7rtkvp2mvfvwaz/A-Moment-to-Readjust.mp3?rlkey=pb268xljtq7est2hh1ueavgyo&dl=0

*****

A Moment to Readjust

I can tell
By the smell
Of the air you stick your nose into

With that aire:
Genteel despair
That my linguistic habits bother you

To begin,
Such is a sin
For surely anyone has ‘missed the point’

For whom minor
Misdemeanor
Puts patrician noses out of joint

Which strict perfect
Diction “correct”
For that world in which they themselves survive

I’d like to see
That diction be
What’s required to get them out alive

From a milieu
Exclusive to
The lower reaches of our human hive

Try to relate
Dramatic state
To some slumlord with eyes both blank and dead

“Renter above
I’m victim of —
My good man, for I have been poison-ed!”

While such as I
Would meet that eye
With one scarcely less deadened of my own

Quietly say
“Well, you know, hey,
There’s those who jus’ can’t leave it well alone…”

Oh, you would get
Unhapp’ier yet
As every roommate after took to hand

What ever be
Most handily
Upon your vuln’rability to land

While I’d install
Just off the hall
A locking small Frigidare of my own

Respecting me
For equity
They’d leave me after peacefully alone

Language be
What we agree
For maximum usefulness it ought

Specific to
The place unto
Which its agreed-on codex has been brought

Not an abstract
And empty act
Precisely as in classrooms it be taught

But a tool,
Self-righteous fool,
By which speaker’s survival may be bought

Among those who
Unlike you
Have for their private purposes agreed

That tones of heart
Their chosen art
Be what over technique they will give heed

I can spew
Your language too —
Get actually Shakespear’ean on your ass

If you will give
One who must live
‘Mongst those who could care less about your “class”

A moment just
To readjust
Back into an entitled, snotty ass…

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level ~ still working seven days a week to contribute to her society, however.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S, or choose to send a personal check to the poet’s ABLE account. It takes about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

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