Shying Away From Shakespeare Poem by RIC BASTASA

i know how is it to love
Shakespeare or
Shelly,

he shakes you and peels you
like a pear
hits your brain with his
spear

and so does his ally
Shelly
makes you bleed
and suffer
the agony of the
intellectual spasms

i burn poetry books
only to miss them again

this masochism at the level
of an obsession-compulsion
malady

i quit them both
and write my own

i am not great but
i have learned how to live a happy life again