Shaunt Basmajian: THE UNESTABLISHED POET

instead
of a new lover
he fantasizes
a penguin publication
royalties
a cottage
by the sea

after a reading
he prefers to get drunk
and think more about
his new poem
instead of the
phone number he received
from an admirer
tormented by one of his
“fillers” he wrote
just to get published
in a small press
magazine

for entertainment
he watches the hockey game
buys lottery tickets
goes to the racetrack
hoping to win
like a longshot
as the underdog
odds
at 10,000 to 1

Shaunt Basmajian, copyright 1987, from Biased Anthologies