The Throwaway Poet

The Throwaway Poet

Thumbing through the offerings

Of an online low price book store

A book of collected poems

Of a famous poet whose life

Spanned part of mine 

Came with a very low price

Paperback I thought

A book I did not purchase

When it hit the stores

Just five short years ago

Because I did not have

The muti-decibuck price

For such a hardback tome

Here the same book shows

For less than the price

Of a small beef roast

I would have devoured

With all the drool deserved

It arrives in the post with another

Group of collected poems

Only these two great lives

Have set me back

Less than five dozen eggs

And a gallon of milk

Depending on the market

And the health of the flock

I'm udderly shocked

These great writers penned

Their lives upon these pages

Published most in small

And mainstream magazines

Gaining fame and stature

And here collected in books

Post life upon this earth

I could Ill afford when first

Their empyrean language

Was laid upon gold-covered

Shelves in fancy book stores

One book in paper so moderately

Priced I could scrape the price

From my bill of rotting food

The other hardback in hundreds

Of pages of fine paper

Covered in preserving plastic

A library so gently blessed

For all its readers now marked

Officially withdrawn from

The eyes of educated patrons just

Five years after publication

Now sitting so graciously

In front of my eyes bulging

With the voice of this god

So here is your life dear Sir

For me to gobble and ponder

The fate of my unpublished

Life and mediocrity galore

But such are the lives

Of all poets tossed upon

The heap of burning paper

The fuel of my cremation

Another throwaway poet

Devoured by worms and years

Barry G. Wick