academic gray-wash
i can write like you,
but can you
write like me?
if you write without a metaphor
could you still make
moving pictures in my mind?
can you take two disparate things
and use them like
a simile?
you take that bleeding wound,
stanch the flow,
then expect me to cry?
you took that twilight-jazz smile
and forced it into
a box, stamped, M-F-I-N-E-A-R-T.
but…
you took the salt lick away —
you took the ghost out of the pepper —
you rubber-stamped your signature
on that get-well card. you write for
your pedantic professorial parent
who only wants
the washcloth after
the visceral verbiage
has been wrung out.
i can write like you. watch me.
then you try to write like me —
and then we’ll see
what sorts of things
you resurrect,
or uncover, from
the ancient
salted
sea.
~j.a.carter-winward
if it stings,that means it’s working: poems — COMING SOON
