NOLAN GUTTERMAN

Remembering that kid
in the school hallways
always quoting averages
on baseball cards
he being of average
height and weight
thinking he is a creation
of the state
born from a botched abortion
outside the United Nations
and only a material creation
always teasing others
for no reason
trying to play basketball
trading drugs to be cool
up town or in Harlem
despising the golden rule
for silver dollars
puts on his white collar
on Wall Street
while withholding Das Capital
in his sweating hands
from a harem of admirers
on the newspaper staff
as an original media maven
he thinks he is a small god
a success story
and everyone else a fool
here only for a laugh
who will write
his own epitaph
righting the wrongs
in pointless derision
with a smidgen
of feeling public ridicule
as a free wheeling social critic
like that fellow H.L. Mencken
once ruled a division
from the "American Mercury"
keeping your brown nose clean
who writes to expose yourself
after being a stool pigeon
and yellow journalism's dean.