Strip Poetry

(A Poetic Theory)

Sometimes a poem can be contrived.

A talented person can sit down and get wordy.

A gifted person can feel the inspiration,

But then chicken out when the Muse calls the bluff.

Sometimes while drawing the feelings and descriptions into the hand,

The Poet may stay, or, nervously, even fold.

But with every gutsy, honest representation dealt onto the page,

The stakes get higher,

And another layer comes off.

It often seems that the reader gets to be the one

Seeing the bet and raising,

And many a turn, the Poet comes out

On the raw end of the deal,

By the epilogue, wearing nothing but a poker-faced smile,

And maybe some earrings.

-jenn long