Simple // One

The poetry of others is not mine:
read, assimilated and digested
it is that foreign country of times past.
Their verses shimmer, tantalising coins
inside stone fountains raining forth wisdom;
acid rain eroding, confidence gone.

I come late to this jamboree, grasping
baggage, pitted with footprints, refusals
stamped between eyeballs: too simplistic, no.
You cannot join our party: name’s not down
that attitude’s a joke, go rhyme elsewhere;
playing a young woman’s game here, sweetheart.