You know when you've been reading too many poems when...

1. Your first thought upon seeing headlines about the Minnesota bridge collapse is "OMG! Is Steve Mueske okay?" rather than a general sense of horror. Thanks for letting us know you're okay, Steve. You were, literally, the first person I thought of, and I've never even met you.

2. Even though you're going to Macs Backs Paperbacks on August 04, 2007 at 7:00 for the John Gallaher, Kevin Prufer, and Wayne Miller reading (Coventry Road, Cleveland) because of the poetry, you can't help hoping that you'll get to see John Gallaher's new tattoo. Just a quick glimpse. Just a peek. Even if it has nothing to do with poetry.

3. You wonder what it would be like to fill a kiddie pool with small press poetry titles and go swimming in it. One guess: paper cutty and riveting.

4. You start wondering if there's a kind of pen and paper that won't get all runny if you take it on the treadmill with you. Maybe a grease crayon of some sort.

5. You keep stuffing poetry books in your messenger bag, then forgetting they're there, so when you lose something and ransack your bag it looks like you've been shoplifting at a bookstore. Except there really aren't any bookstores that would carry all of those small press titles at once, so you look like you've been shoplifting at the world's awesomest bookstore. And nobody gives a shit, of course, except your poetry friends.