! ! This Charm Thing Poem by Michael Shepherd

There are guys who think they have charm
and are so confidently wrong that
the molecules in our stomach grate together
as we watch them get away with it

and those who don’t know they have it
and are deservedly babe-magnets
and what makes you think I envy them

and those who know they have it
but behave like gentlemen
so we try to like them

and those who so successfully
have it and overuse it that
we call upon the Fates and Furies
saying hey did you see that guy over there

you, I think, Billy Collins
know you have it but
don’t rate it as important
as writing poetry, so

one moment, it’s a one-liner
waiting for the full second house;

another, taking the short cab ride
from the Algonquin to the New Yorker
smiling secretly but
purely from the pleasure of sharing itself;

or sometimes, it’s chiselled perfectly
on a fragment of smooth white marble
lifted out of the Aegean Sea
which sparkles timelessly
because that’s how it is