William Prindle has earned an Honorable Mention in Streetlight’s 2021 Poetry Contest
Apologizing to Ferlinghetti
You never took
the deal
the hand
America dealt
what did you have
to lose anyway
father and mother
dead or
gone mad
you spoke French first
so why not bat the English
words way out there
fungoes of the mind
screw the form screw the State
just write
and how you wrote
wrote and sold sold like hell
turned on the Lights published
Howl screwed the Court
didn’t thank the Academy
that did shit for you
just invited everyone
to the party
coffeehouse hipsters
the dharma dumpsters
full of books
the Academy kept throwing out
your bookstore rambled right
past the millennium
giving my friend Jan
time to finally get the guts
walk up
to the counter speak to
the slacker at the register
slip him a ten spot for the book
she stole in 1970
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