I am looking for poems
in Greene County and everywhere
for a new anthology of poems
about people and where they’re
from and what they believe (politically
and in other ways) so I’ve been
asking strangers for poems. Waitress
yesterday at Tiny Diner in Greenville
New York, fit older woman who
doesn’t smile although she is enthusiastic
about breakfast specials
yesterday when I asked if she’d like
to write a poem she said
I’m not quite a poet. Let me ask
in the kitchen she said and came back
to say they’re not poets either.
Would you like to try I asked.
Not yet was her kind reply.
(Today I will try Greenville’s
Eclips hair salon
no e in eclipse (because Eclips
is just about clipping.)
Your approach will get people to think outside the box! My guess is it will lead to quite a collection of friends, poems, or both.