Youth+Beauty+Fear+Doubt- 'She was consumed by 3 simple things: drink, despair, loneliness; and 2 more: youth and beauty' - Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers At Last

I AM 25

With a love a madness for Shelley

Chatterton      Rimbaud

and the needy-yap of my youth

has gone from ear to ear:

             I HATE OLD POETMEN!

Especially old poetmen who retract

who consult other old poetmen

who speak their youth in whispers,

saying:- I did those then

             but that was then

             that was then-

O I would quiet old men

say to them:- I am your friend

                     what you once were, thru me

                     you'll be again-

Then at night in the confidence of their home

rip out their apology-tongues

                   and steal their poems.

- Gregory Corso