Reply To An Email Bearing A Reader's "Demands"

Whatever made you think you could demand

that I should, going forward, meekly follow

standards that you think you have represented?

You do not claim to even understand

them fully.  Is that not a little shallow

on your part?  And by what authority

(either accomplished by your Poetry

or demonstrated by some scholarly

citation) do you dictate this to me?

The emperor's new clothes are tattered robes;

his is the hatred that all sorts of "-phobes"

scatter about (sometimes quite brutally).

Your babbles have no authenticity:

you are besotted and, or else, demented.


Starward

Author's Notes/Comments: 

Some months ago, I received an email from a person who has read some of my poems, and who accused me of failing to either follow or uphold the standards of Poetry; even though he seemed unable to state what those standards might be.  He actually stated that he "demanded" this compliance from me.  I felt that this might be in the nature of a "cheap potshot" or else, even "malarkey."  I did not wish to use these terms in the poem; and, instead, followed the suggestion of another Poet as to the motivation of the email:  which is mentioned in the poem's final line.

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