Consider a Poem

If I speak to explain myself
and you do not understand,
it is not that I mumble in tongues
but that my syllables sometimes invest
the common meaning with a strange humor.

Nothing I say will take the IRS
off your back, nor stop construction
of four-lane highways, nor vote down
the next shopping center, nor win you
a divorce (if you want one). Sounds
I call words are sometimes so deep
in my throat I must wait to hear them.

But let us work shoulder to shoulder
and you listen and you may be able
to say honestly, I share poetry for the
same reason I drink a glass of water.