If you read with a critical eye

A literary equation

Then you miss the words on the page

That don’t fit

Your notions

Of what good poetry is

 

If you hear

With a critical ear

Your needle skips the tune

The meaning

Of this person’s record

Scratched

 

If you close your heart

To the emotional lexicon

Of arterial verse

Pumping raw feelings

Downstream

Language lost in the tide

 

Cut

Words left on a page

Like unwanted blood stains

On a clean white shirt

Tainted laundry

 

If you judge with a preconceived mind

The one behind the mask

Is never revealed

An enigma