Z says we need real poets
now more than ever

I wonder what he means
and don’t

it involves tired words like
now, zeigeist, America

truth.

Z taught me a poem is a
machine

that transmits
mental states

but if I could share
my mind with you

I wouldn’t

I worry we would
meet in a contradictory

tangle of neurons
on some platonic plane

of poetic existence
to spit in each other’s face

we’ve lost the meaning of
good faith

what we need
now more than ever

is a dictionary

buried somewhere in this
unending tome of pages

there must surely be
a few words

on whose meaning
we can agree