Whatever our era needs, it isn’t you,
	all erudition and pointlessness. Go block a tarmac.
		Get to a travelers’ dorm and stand in the doorway
when the sons of Ares arrive. Make your latest hardback
	(nobody’s buying it anyway) into your shield.
Stick around here. Speak plainly. Don’t pursue
	conjunctions and conjugations, the way you used to do,
		down switchback trails, through vines and thickets of grammar,
past setts, through every epiphyte and eave.
	It’s not like they’re coming after you first: you’ve concealed
		your rage all your life behind curtains of time, place and manner.
	On the other hand, it’s still your nation.
It’s not like they’ll let you back in, if you choose to leave. 


						(Greek Anthology 11:321)

---

Stephanie Burt is Donald and Katherine Loker Professor of English at Harvard. SUPER GAY POEMS, a collection of 51 poems (none by Stephanie) with an essay (by Stephanie) about each one, came out (as it were) in April 2025; her book about Taylor Swift will follow in October.