it’s like actors audition
and this one’s better
than that one for the part.

so, the poem auditions
for the moment
as the poem auditions for the journal.

we are not looking
for that one right now.
we are looking for this.

you are a harrison ford poem
and we are looking for
tom cruise

more teethy
ten years or so
younger.

•••

i don’t know about
yours, but this,
truthfully, has been the story
of much of my life.