PROMPT DU JOUR

by George Held


Those goddamned oil-drenched dying pelicans
Are the prompt du jour for every deadbeat
Poet in the land.

Christ, pelicans have replaced grandmothers
As the hot topic for workshoppers
And other wannabes.

Poetic lamentations for those birds
Won’t help them survive any better
Than the Dodo.

Get used to them…they’re with us
For the next few decades. Turn your gaze
Elsewhere.

Besides, now that Bill Clinton recommends
Nuking the leak shut—destroying the Gulf
To save it—

There’ll be lots of photo ops of carcasses
Of pelicans, porpoises, even whales
And maybe people

To write about.


George Held has collected many of his New Verse News poems in The News Today.
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