I Am Unbeaten
that is to say
I am not a dead beat
I was not a friend
of Allen Ginsberg
I never drank
with Jack Kerouac
There’s no provenance
to my poetry
Ferlinghetti
was not my father
I am unbeaten
that is to say
I carry the burden of myself
without a literary Christ
to save me
from the weight
of who I am
sluffed-off onto
other men or deities
I stand on the bottom
of my words
period
that is to say
I am not really beat
or of the beat period
I am unbeaten
Gary Snyder
did not rip my rap
William Burroughs
never shot my cat
and I never rode
with Cassidy
that is NOT to say
I am undefined
or unimpressed
by impressionists
or threatened by
surrealists
I am not censored
drubbed
or defeated by thugs
I am not waiting
for an offbeat drummer
or someone else
to sing of myself
I am not battered
and bludgeoned
I was never a beat
I am unbeaten
period.