215/365/Poetry and Form

March 1989 e-mail, from me to a coworker:

I found this great poem in the new drugs section.
Did you write it?

It is a broad-spectrum chemotherapeutic agent
indicated
for metastatic testicular tumors,
metastatic ovarian tumors,
and advanced bladder cancer.
Platinol-AQ is an alternative
to Platinal powder.

He replies:

That’s really beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. I only wish I had written it. Alas, I have not yet been published by such publications. You may, however, from time to time, have seen my work in the Washington Post Style (as it is) section. You are wise not to read it. For other reasons too.