Beggar

Just one!
I begged the Muse.

You again?
Always the same

schtick.
If you want the line,

you’ll have to earn it.
How?

Write about something
besides younger men,

Muse said.
Think of Elizabeth Bishop,

who spent twenty years
on “The Moose.”

No! I won’t!
Too late. I was already

minding my
mousse

au
chocolat.