Books and Lives

You sniff around in tattered books and lives
and think you sense a poet’s blood and sweat,
but if you want a taste go ask the wives.         
You sniff around in tattered books and lives,
but they’re the ones who cut themselves on knives    
mistaken for soft tongues of sweet regret.
You sniff around in tattered books and lives  
and think you sense a poet’s blood and sweat.

—Tim Hawkins, Rockford, MI

 

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