Tonight's Poet Corner: Cereal Musician

Cereal Musician
by Belinda Roddie

They'll catch you in the corner,
halfway through a bowl of Captain
Crunch, mid-chew. They'll ask you
to write a song to rival the crooning
of the sirens caught in salt storms.

You'll pluck a tune from a guitar
as sleek as a gutted fish, and yet
they'll growl at the fact that there
is no "powerful message" gurgling
from the frothy pit of your time
signature. But words that overpower
music are worth no more than
an old man's rant, a tired sailor

who foams with condescension,
and whom no one wants
to listen to anymore.