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I Was A Teenage Poet 

writing haikus in my black 1974 Toyota Celica. 
Skipped Algebra to do poetry readings in the boy's bathroom 
 
for boys washing their hands 
with dispensed pink liquids. 
 
 
Punk rockers piss on their steel toe boots. 
Hypnotized by my lyrics of love & limericks of lust. 
 
I Was A Teenage Poet that 
held poetry workshops in the school cafeteria 
 
while chess club freshman and straight "A" junkies filled 
themselves on Sloppy Joes & applesauce. 
 
Math teachers rode my ass about 
past-due homework assignments. 
 
"Don't talk to me about algebraic expressions. 
I'm in the middle of creating a poetic masterpiece." 
 
I must have complete silence & a felt tip pen. 
My black friends loved my poems 
 
on how the man keeps me 
down into a confederate fit. 
 
White friends loved the poems on summer vacations 
& how to blond the hair & shade the eyes blue. 
 
There were poems about 
suicidal tendencies & girls on the verge. 
 
I Was A Teenage Poet 
sticking tankas in the windshields 
 
of Fords, Chevrolets, Honda Accords. 
A poem for the Preppies in designer sweaters 
 
& loafers with pennies inside. 
A thumbtack-type of poem is planted in a teacher's chair. 
 
A poem for that, too-cool-to-talk-to someone- like- you attitude. 
A love poem for the cute guy who 
 
sits behind me in Creative Photography. 
For William who sits in front of me in Western Civ. 
while I write the last line of this poem.

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