Every day I refresh the page to see
if my poem has gone up on the website.
Who am I kidding? I do it every hour.
More than once an hour, actually.
Probably every few minutes. Has the poem
gone up? Has the poem gone up? It hasn’t.
And I’m not sure what to do when it does.
Throw a party? Run naked down the street?
Send a link in an email to the President
of the USA? I know I’ll do none of these things.
I’ll just read the poem over a few times and
go to bed aglow with pride. And then
what? They’ve not paid me for the poem.
I’m no further out of my overdraft than I was
a day or two ago. Letters still pile up
on the mat. The mortgage is still there.
A poem on a website does not a day’s
work make. I can’t eat exposure, however
tasty it looks. See I’m hungry for words.
Feed me with your likes. Glut me with
your clicks. I’ll sell my house for your love.
Joshua Seigal
