How To Poem

Step 1: Drink twelve ounces of coffee.
Step 2: Crisis around a little.
Step 3: Write poetry with the 
immediacy of a conversation
between a father and
a daughter, discover
verses painted in crimson
flowering on concrete
across a quiet street;
do no take any more
steps -- you are in
the right place and 
you will dash across
the universe - which 
is contained in your
final drops of coffee,
which you will drink,
and then you will go
home and give your
infant son a hug.