Not exempt

For Your 0wn Safety and Protection


In response to the recent flooding
of the poetry trade with cheap, inferior verse,
heavy tariffs have been imposed
on this poem.


As a result, it is unlikely
this poem will be read by anyone
outside my domestic market -
or as I like to call her, my cat.


Such news will come as a relief
to the thousands of people
who have already found my poetry
to be taxing enough,


and lends further credence
to those literary critics
who consider my work to be
of little import.


Brian Bilston