Refuse the Wine

Shorty George doesn’t read
published poems,
his only reads virgins,

he picks over yard sale scrapbooks,
scours bathroom walls,
hides behind Jimmy’s Tavern
to read graffiti
on passing rail cars.

Shorty’s saddened by the state
of poetry in America.

Shorty’s girlfriends
must be virgins too,
he’s never known the pleasure
of an evening with Annie French,
Cave Sadie, or Jersey Belle.

Shorty George eats the grapes,
refuses to drink the wine.