DILEMMA by Chocolate Waters

I can’t stand poets who won’t read other poets.
I can’t stand poets who won’t read.
I can’t stand poets who are too drunk to stand up
when they read.
I can’t stand when I can’t understand poets.
I can’t understand poets who can’t understand
when I can’t stand
poets.

First published in Poems That Thump, 1994

Chocolate Waters loves to drink and write in bars. She’s produced four poetry collections this way and currently has a new collection, Bittersweet Resurrection (Eggplant Press, NY, NY) coming out in 2019. “Write drunk, edit sober,” said Hemmingway – and she does. She’s lived in Manhattan for nearly 40 years. Sorry, no cats.