flowers for Robert Waddell: an elegy
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we
kill by devaluation
ad(s) tell us who’s worth something
junct(ion) of
professors in a meeting
every person there knows one
day contingent faculty will tire
when they can’t visit five campuses anymore
I insist on
bring(ing) food, offering stipends
up for time in workshops
they don’t even know your
work, how you made a name
in Latinx expertise, they
have to pretend
their work is harder to
accomplish, but I remember
you journalist, the poets who(se)
talent you
lauded proudly, you are alive in me
Structure
32 lines · 21 stanzas