Why I Hate to Submit

the way they make me save it
while they whore
around, dipping their fingers
in the inkwells of everyone

dangling the bait for me
to snap at like a typewriter
key banging
at an empty page

demanding loyalties
they do not return

making me shake
my metaphors in their face
without so much
as a dollar to wave
in my direction

enough of my life already
held hostage and I
will no longer treat my poetry
like a punchcard
to be signed

waiting
for the whistle-hour
that comes when someone else
decides

my poems will not be
cheap circus dogs
hooping through fire
for small applause

or concubines
slaving
for some sultan’s harem

my poems will be
great clots of blood
I throb against the wall

the naked breasts
of nursemaids or the body
freely given to desire

I love what Deb Morbeto did with this one – I think a lot of people who submit their work for publication can relate, especially to Godzilla.