! Faves And Yuks Poem by Michael Shepherd

and some say
oh that’s my favourite ever poem
my aunt my uncle my teacher read it
to me when I was twelve
and the more I read it
the more true it is and now
I’m older I can say it off by heart
as if the poem knows my heart

and some say
that poem yuk I really really hate it
the more people said to me
that’s a great poem
the more I hated it
now if I see it
in an anthology
I skip the page quickly
I really really hate it

and I wonder if
the more people read a poem
do they take a bit of its power into themselves
so it no longer has quite that surprise it had

or the more people read that poem
the more they add to it
so it has the power
to surprise more people

or do poems
like a rest from time to time
like that old toy in
your grandparents’ attic
which so surprised you

that Jack-in-a-box
with a face like
Pushkin
or Langston Hughes