BAUDELAIRE

Baudelaire,pariah poet
expressing the garish
in Satan's selfish garden
gods messiah pardon,

With a succulent
flair for words
among the condemned
hemmed in as caged birds,

Clothed and spent in Paris
as a dandy for cover
well to do, embarrassed,
in a handy oath for lovers,

The gents and passerby
do not know your tears
conservative critics in arrears
suspect your furtive ideas,

In dawn's despair
you realize that exiles
are like a swan
wishing to rise in the air,

Captivated hypochondriac
with earth-wise rage
creative hysteric
spent on every page,

Close your doors
a genius to be fair
eyes his correspondences
from a sonorous Baudelaire.