Poets Down Here

"The poets down here don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be." --Bruce Springsteen

Where the hell have you been, poet?
Your lazy generaling has cost you the field
The high ground is staked out by infomercials and self-help books
now your feeble efforts are picked off by the snipers of derision.
Talk show hosts with book clubs do your heavy lifiting
You have left the teenage girl in love to the care of the pop singer
The heartbroken boy plays video games instead
The grieving widow suckles to the televangelist
You knew the stakes and you have shat yourself in fear and faked supremacy
All elbow patches and ironic t-shirts and soy-latte stained smirks
Get your nose out from your text books
Get out from under your grad student
and fight
A land of cows and tired dogs is starving
Their tire swing daydreams
and back seat heart screams
shoveled deep into narcotic sleep.
Give them food
Stand and fight
Cease your search for the perfect form
and instead
speak to those who are ready to do battle for love.
Do not stand back and let it all be.