Please lend an ear to the audio version
of submission guidelines
or paint can shake your
eyes across the screen
for eighteen paragraphs of
disclosures and fine print.
The poems are yours, to keep.
We ask if they are reprinted,
you grant us full permission
to freely edit said poem and change your pen name to something
of more substance:
Kitty O’Shea. Marie Camden.
Vanessa Onomatopoeia.
Delete any obtuse metaphors.
Roll it out only to chop it down,
like a stack of plates, through the roof, falling as Jenga pieces
into a falling apart bathtub.
Do not let the flashing cursor
control your screen. We will.
And dictate which words will be for your choosing
from the constructive criticism
via email suggestion box.
Your art, your keys tip-tapping
keep us alive
and will become our masterpiece
created out of crumpled post-it-notes
and from lines you scrawled
on diner napkins
as the waiter had to refill the dispenser
at morning-rush breakfast hour.
We feed off as fencepost alley
cats in need of scraps,
dancing on our overgrown claws,
waiting to indulge in your art
to make it ours.
After all, it's only a poem
About Alyssa Trivett:
Alyssa Trivett is a wandering soul from the Midwest. When not working two jobs, she listens to music while chirping down coffee and scrawling lines on the back of gas station receipts. Her work has appeared in many places (including the trash bin), but most recently at The Rye Whiskey Review.
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