If Only Poems Paid The Rent Poem by David McLansky

If only poems paid the rent,
When the rent was due;
I'd pay six months in advance,
And have my lease renewed;

If only poems paid the bill
Slipped on the restaurant table;
I'd tip the waiter, overpay,
Like Cary did with Grable.

If only poems assurred ones love
Like furs and gold and pearls,
I'd scatter sonnets at the feet
Of my one and only girl.

If only poems halted Time
And stilled its sad decay
I'd pin a poem on his sycthe
And send him on his way.

But poems don't pay the rent
Or exchange for a pan fried cutlet
And girls and Time won't give a dime
For an iambic rhyming couplet.