Dialogue Of The Deaf
 
(Contributor and Editor)
 
C: Third time rejected? This is quite absurd!
      Pecked full of holes as if by some foul bird!
 
E:  Fearless, I judge, no tame domestic fowl,
      A sharp-eyed eagle, or a wise old owl.
 
C.  No! More a vulture, one who daily dines
      On verbal beauties ripped from butchered  lines!
 
E:  Fastidiously just, I note what’s weak
      And then insert that vital saving tweak.
 
C:  Ham-handed! Blind!! Deficient in finesse!
      Another stanza in severe distress!
 
E.  Whatever tricks that some submitters try
      The doors are closed to uninformed canaille.
 
C . Reactionary poseur! Elitist!  Cliché-mine!
      Stick in the formal mud! Snob! Tin-eared swine!
 
E:  These epithets condemn you out of hand.
      Henceforth your name is on the list of banned.

Jerome Betts

If you have any thoughts on this poem,  Jerome Betts would be pleased to hear them.