Poets Totem Pole
If I could carve a Poet’s Totem Pole
I’d put Walt Whitman on the base
above him, Blake with wings—
one wing with Keats,
the other with Byron
above them a big usquebaugh
bottle with Dylan Thomas face
in the middle
above, an eagle with the face
of Pablo Neruda
his hands will be holding
paper on one a pen on the other
above Neruda
will be Martin Espada
holding a sword
and a microphone—
above them
Jack Mc Carthy
with both arms up
in the air
and a stern look
into your eyes
my eyes, his eyes
as if performing
at a slam
pausing without
telling us anything
Raúl Sánchez is a Seattle Bio-Tech technician, eschatologist, colletic, prosody enthusiast, hamartiologist, translator, DJ, and cook who conducts workshops on The Day of the Dead. He was featured in the program for the 2011 Burning Word Poetry Festival in Leavenworth WA. His most recent work is the translation of John Burgess’ Punk Poems in his book Graffito. He has been a board member of the Washington Poets Association and is a moderator for the Poets Responding to SB 1070 Facebook page.
Copyright © 2014 by Raul Sanchez