Poet Poem by Scott Alten

Imagine there was
an escaped mental patient.
He could pose as a poet
because producing poetry
would be easy for him
as poetry and paranoia-schizophrenia
are almost interchangeable.

He might teach poetry
at a university out west,
to sane students,
and then he might take
a two hundred dollar a week
speaking engagement tour
that lasted through summer.

And when he was finally recaptured
and returned to the asylum,
nobody would be surprised.