and the oscar goes to in poetry

I met Oscar Wilde once
at a cafe in Brooklyn
he’d time-traveled there
to see what the future was like
nobody blinked at his attire
everyone’s trying to dress
like they’re from some other time
on the mean streets of Williamsburg

we talked about writing and
we talked about social progress and
we talked about how clever
each of us thought we were and
then he got in a time machine
warped himself on back home

later on I’d discovered
that when he was back in the past
he stole one of my witticisms
paraphrased it and passed it off
as his own and
I was so goddamned mad because
even though I had the idea
he used it chronologically before me and
I have no path to recourse

the saying was originally
“I may be lying in the gutter
but I’m peeking up your skirt”
Oscar changed it around
to “I’m looking at the stars”
because he was more into dudes I guess
but it was still a dick thing to do

I’m still angry about it