Why Poets Aren’t on TV
By Tori Cárdenas
Poets aren’t on TV because they cry when they are asked about their feelings.
Poets are messy.
Poets will tell it like it is. They will tweeze out the words you meant from an argument
& divinate the heart of you by casting your dry fingerbones.
Poets are easily distracted. They will not settle for limited omniscience
and will write a poem from the bottom of the ocean or a planet orbiting a distant star.
Poets are old deep wells with trolls still living in them.
Poets refuse to read from the teleprompter.
Poets will only read aloud with the dangling vocal chimes of generations before them,
the infected & murdered; the drugged, the persuaded, and the robbed.
Poets rewrite erased words.
Poets only own black clothing, and so are hard to fit into certain studio sets.
Poets will not sit through hair & makeup.
Poets are oblivious to commercial breaks. Their ribcages pulse with broken rhythms.
Poets are lie detectors. They unstarch anchors’ shirts with sex & politics & blood.
There is no script for poetry. Poets are still trying to translate it into the vernacular.
Poets aren’t on TV because they are hard roles to cast; they are mirrors.
Who would want to watch a blank screen?
Tori Cárdenas is a Tainx/Latinx poet from Northern New Mexico. She is currently working on her Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry at the University of New Mexico. Follow her on Twitter at @monsoonpoet and on Instagram at @toritillas, and visit her website.
Photo credit: Tina Rataj-Berard on Unsplash.