Don’t Hit Delete

for Philip Sturges

Why steal your poems
back from the world?

Ok, true, the world sucks
and it doesn’t deserve them

but that’s not the point.
A few people still want

to be carried off by an umbrella
into the Paris sky

and, hopefully, they always will.
Magritte understood this

and Chagall certainly did

and you’re telling me
you’ve got something on those guys?

Don’t hit delete.

Stealing them back is
only a misdemeanor

and, of course, I’ll bail you out
but, even one night in jail is not much fun.

Don’t steal your poems
back from the world.

The world may never understand this
but it needs them

and so does the Paris sky.

–October 22, 2015