The failed poet left an epistle for the Mailboxes. Their name was there on the rusty receptacle just inside the crumbling tenement.

To whom it may concern:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Mailbox,
Yours truly is looking for a post.
I have letters – of reference – a stamp of approval.
I promise to deliver.
RSVP
Yours sincerely,
A Poet Postponed

a ghost
in the machine
writing a wild horse

Days passed. The letters began: To Rearrange Themselves. The Mailboxes came. Down with their building. So the rubble rabbled.

swollen eyes
in the damp moonlight
a potato dreams

Once the dust settled and the guilty were booked and the sentences executed, a quiet period followed. He now pursued another line of work – without success.

In the end, nothing happened.

an old song
winks in the waves
madness in the eye of night

Question 1: Identify the literary devices in the prosimetric narrative above.

Question 2: Write a reply to the Poet in iambic pentameter, from the judge’s point of view.

Robert Witmer