This was a book of prizes
of critics giving critics
awards that each of them desired;
And the age is the age of the academic,
the long brittle wire attachment,
the wherewithal by which these mannered marionettes’
movements are articulated. This is the an era
of the Lam and the Scam, of “publish or perish”,
the Who-am-I-to-criticize mentality,
an all-too-real fantasy of Interconnections
that’s caught us all by the balls and is squeezing.
This is the age wherein
you can look-him-up on the internet
to see if he’s really important.