Jen Escapes the Ruins in Austin, Collin Will Follow

I found these handwritten notes
sent by a woman named Jen
to a man named Collin

In them Jen acknowledges
the two of them as “poets” and talks
of the importance of
handwriting (it is close to speech)
and imagines that Collin
feels the same about his typewriter

Eh. . . . there is a little reminiscence
about a party, a little filament
about some vague romance,
repeated mentions of vodka and
“drunken poetry talks”

Jen describes her failure to
harness a strange,
abstract voice,
is finding it hard to beat away
the locals’ influence

Says there is a lot
of poetry ahead for both of them,
they are, after all,
young

Well, Jen,
Collin,
drink in your own
rooms away from your peers

After the conversation has died down
and the last cigarette has burned,
open the notebook up

Cut back on the letter writing
and write more poetry

Pack your luggage and get
out of dodge, avoid a
trip into stark perdition
because I suspect

your final tally of conversations,
and smokes, and drinks, and levitating
parties, and grandstand speeches – will
greatly outnumber and overwhelm
your poetry