3 Gentlemen from Hell - Red Hawk

[Larry Robinson]

3 Gentlemen from Hell

3 gentlemen from hell arrive
at my door. They are looking
for poets to man the university
teaching positions, to conduct
seminars and workshops which
seduce the young into believing
they want to write and have a 
talent to do so.

They are fat and wear 3-piece suits,
these gentlemen from hell. They
have closely trimmed beards and
gold phi-beta keys dangle over the
swollen burial mounds of their
bellies.  They offer small sums of
money and the possibility of tenure.
In return I must write acceptably,

poems that do not say fuck or shit,
which can be printed in journals
thick with these university poets
and their poems which not only
smell like but are full of.......well
you know what I mean. In return,
these gentlemen offer an easy road
for art, a comfortable place to compose

dry, witless, brain dead imitations
of the witless dead in their anthologies.
They want me to beguile the young,
to lie to them and cheat their hearts
until they qualify for an MFA and can
go forth themselves, can secure tenure
and reproduce their kind.
I invite the 3 in; we haggle over salary.

           - Red Hawk




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