Who Shows Up at My Poetry Reading
by Kenneth Ronkowitz
A guy I went to college with who lives in town
and introduced himself before the reading with, “I guess you’re still writing that poetry stuff.”
A few of those people who spend some of every day wandering around a library or bookstore
but never read, buy or borrow books.
That person who has been stalking me online.
Someone from the staff who just came in for the refreshments,
but feels uncomfortable about walking out until I finish this poem.
A woman who has been on her phone the entire time I have been reading,
but took a photo of me.
Other poets who are not really listening to me read
because they are getting ready for the open reading after I finish.
The woman who invited me and mispronounced my name in her introduction.
Someone with a young child which made me decide not to read one of the poems I had marked.
Two friends who do not really like poetry
but want to be supportive, and say at the end, “So, this is what you do.”
And you, who is listening intently
and wants to say something afterwards
about one poem I read
that seems so much like your own life
that you wonder if we have ever met before.
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