I Poem

I demand my right to a verb.

Painters paint, singers sing, dancers dance,

Workers work – hell, even engineers engineer stuff.

All I want is my verb.

I’m not just a writer – I’m a poet.

Writers write and that’s all well and good for them,

But I don’t just write… I do something else.

I just don’t know what you call it.

Somebody wiser than me once said that

It’s not what you do that defines you,

But it’s who you are that defines what you do.

Salman Rushdie said, “a poet’s work is to name

The unnameable, to point at frauds,

To take sides, start arguments, shape the world,

And stop it going to sleep.”

And that’s fine by me – so from now on,

I don’t just write – I am a poet, and I will

Define what I do. – And I poem.