My Way_ Speeches and Poems - Charles Bernstein

190 FROM AN ONGOING INTERVIEW WITH TOM BECKETT
don't forget to bring a salami.
Or we are on a roll but nobody
knows it (if a poet roils society
but nobody hears it, did she really
roil, or just rock?). I wouldn't
join a society that would have me as a member.
I wouldn't join a society that would have
you as a member. And another thing too:
That's no society that's a public space.
The poet aims to shoo the fly off the flypaper
(for fly read reader, for flypaper read society).
I'm sick and tired of your society, I'm going
straight to the mall and buy me a new one
at the Society Shoppe.
Most of the poets who have a role in society
are giving poetry a bad name.
What this society needs is a good
five-cent Skeltonic.
(Let me help you unwrap the gauze.)
I've got a few words
& some new rhythms in my head
let me see what I can come up with.
There are no social impediments to a poet doing her
or his job since these impediments create the conditions
for the work; our problems are primarily technical and
ethical. But, boy, do we have some problems,
let me tell you ...
Poets are the punching bags of society
& as I say, I recommend rolling with the punches.
But better still is ducking.
Now as to duck, I prefer it extra crisp
& if that makes me a francophile
so be it ...
In any case, never take a punch sitting
down; run or at least walk rapidly,
hop or skip to the 100; unless it is a
fruit punch-that's good sitting or
standing but not jumping.
But, seriously, Tom, you were saying ... ?
I got lost somewhere between the sentences
right in the middle of the verses.