HWIST!

"These are uncorrected proofs

Please do not quote for publication 

Until you check your copy 

Against the finished book."

Frankly, there's no trusting this writer

He may well decide to move every

Bit of punctuation to the last few pages 

Making them a slurry of sleepy periods 

Alarmed commas, confused semicolons,

Exultant exclamation points, warded by

Suspicious rows of parens. (Question marks? 

Who knows what they feel or what 

He'll do to them?) When we published 

His last book he made us, at the last moment,

Replace the swans on page 96 with cats.

The cats refused to get wet so we

Had to put them all in little gondolas 

The swans' reflections refused to leave; 

The cats hissed at them; they hissed back.

The other poems complained but

What could we do? Trust us; 

Do not quote for publication until 

You check your copy against the finished book.