--- J E F F E R S O N   C A R T E R

One woman threw up after she slept
with him.  Another accused him of rape.
The widow of a poet he'd betrayed
crashed in his motel room, who knows why.
A year later he described her
in a story as boring & fat.

A snapshot of him at fourteen, scowling
on the beach, wearing a suit & tie.
His nose pitted, his skin like oatmeal,
he looks like a formal monster.
Who would love a face like that?
I imagine him writing his first poem.