poem of the day 10.03.14

getting poems rejected

by a writer you don’t respect

there’s really nothing to do

but stare at the email that says

thanks….but i think i’ll pass

after all, this is your fault

you sent the poems to him

against your better judgment

you remember back two weeks ago

to when the submission was just hanging there

as you finished a last coffee

you checked your watch and still had minutes to kill

before you had to get ready for work

i believe your exact words were

ah, fuck it, mine aren’t any worse than his

then you attached a batch to him

with a little note saying:

hope this batch does something for you

because you wanted one more shot

at having your name in lights

and now here they are back in your possession

like you thought they’d be

this isn’t the first time he’s rejected you

the first

thanks….but i think i’ll pass

you remember the one time he solicited from you

and he still rejected your poems

it would almost be laughable

if you weren’t right in the middle

of what is shaping up to be

two bad writing weeks in a bad writing month

in an overall bad year

maybe the worst year you’ve experienced on this planet

you didn’t need this dickhead’s rejection

but there you have it

and to make matters worse

here you are committing the cardinal sin

of writing a poem about being a fucking poet

christ

you go on his web site and read his bad poems

just to fuel your anger

they all look the same

they all sound the same

three words to a line

that snake along like a river of shit

for a page or two

until they die like common houseflies

with the comments from a bunch of sycophants

egging this literary abomination on

you think the whole world

must be crazy

then you load up a new page on the machine

to type your next immortal dung heap

take a sip on the scalding coffee

thinking that you’ll wait at least six months or so

before you try that asshole again.