POEM: “An Apology to My Reader”

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“An Apology to My Reader”

 

Let me first say

an apology is not warranted

 

although I am sorry

you didn’t like my work,

I am sorry my words offend

or cause you pain, open wide

that hole in your heart

–yet isn’t that a part

of art’s ultimate calling?

–to make us feel something,

not always some things

we want but to unearth

what’s buried deep inside. It’s

the horror of the disgorged grave

as well as the exhilaration

of a ballerina’s pirouette,

the dispepsia of an undigested

bit of tainted beef versus

the ecstacy of a lover’s embrace,

the shoulders shrugged against

the enigma of an ignorant world

and the melancholic mind’s eye

turned inward despite willing

ourselves blind, so while

I wish you every happiness,

I also admit I want praise,

adulation even as I question

why anyone would spend

their hard earned cash, tender

payment to buy a book of mine.

 

I am sorry you are unhappy

with my words, with time

I tendered writing, recording,

with the hours, days, weeks

of creating stories, drawing imagery,

imagining metaphors, birthing similes,

reworking prose and poetries, so although

 

an apology is not warranted,

I will extend you this one exception:

 

I’m sorry, but I don’t give refunds.

 

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Thank you for visiting my blog! I hope you enjoyed that little bit of snarky humor. I actually do have some more pandemic-themed poems, but I wanted to do something different this week. This particular poem was inspired by a prompt from Cuyahoga County Public Library ’s Read + Write: 30 Days of Poetry . Wherever you are, stay safe, stay well, and read often!

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*Image courtesy of www.publicdomainpictures.net via Creative Commons License.