JIM BENNETT
A Poetry Reading

I went to a poetry reading
a place where poets read their work
to other poets
waiting to read their work
heard a poet read a poem about a zoo
and every animal
was addicted to a drug
which was clever
because
some of the drugs
started with the same sound
as the name of the animal
like herons on heroin
anteater's on amphetamines
stuff like that
but the poem wasn't really about that

I find this with poems
they say they are about something
but afterward you realize
they are about something else.
the poem about the zoo
for example
was about a poet
being prepared to write anything for money
now that would be funny
except it was about something else
as well

I will probably read this poem
in a reading somewhere
and people will wonder what it is about
and only later will they realize
it was not about what they thought