I said how natural she was on stage.
She said poets are just people you know—
it felt like wry chastisement—
not knowing I am a poet
and I was learning by watching her,
absorbing, not just listening and laughing.

Often poets who read are not
willing to risk being themselves
in all delicious quirkiness
in all complex humanness
in front of everyone
wanting rather, to be perfection
or some reasonable approximation.

Margaret Dubay Mikus
© 2010

From Thrown Again into the Frazzle Machine