I Let You Watch The Gears (Orleans LIII '91)

I let you watch the gears
They interlock, turn and churn
to produce a word

I let you watch the gears
I do not know what kind
of poet does this,
who employs a device, a trick
and then tells you all about it
This may detract from my
poetic worth, I cannot tell
I cannot stop showing you the gears
classic passive aggressive

the magician poem

magician loses it on stage, describes
how to do all of his tricks, audience is
mesmerized, but doesn't really want to hear
because it ruins the mystery and he is some-
what pathetic
interspersed with lines describing what
I'm doing as a poet