Here's a poem to pay the bills
close deals without bad feelings
settle for what you deserve & design
the ultimate umbrella.

This poem drains the pasta
charges 900 calls to screwballs & the clowns
who cut you off in traffic.
It scratches your back

takes your hand when you're scared
throws off the fantods when you're crazy
holds your calls & generally
saves your ass.

Sits with you when you can't sleep
herds the owl of fortune to your shoulder
shoos the wolf out of the back yard
& rejections from your door step.

This poem grows warm
at your touch. Its shape
holds a terrapin shell's burnished
intricate glaze & drifts

from that place your life flows.
What you think it can't bear
curls with a guitar's whisper
& zest in each line.
 

[printed with permission of David Steingass, from Fishing for Dynamite. 2d. ed. Northfield, MN: Red Dragonfly P, 2003.]