the editor

na.

s/he sits in her/office day in & day out

eyes popping out of her/his head from

pawing over endless manuscripts,

the yearning from voices all over the world

sits at her/his very fingertips &

from years of experience,

the editor slashes whole parts of another’s

masterpiece,

dicing & slicing in order to make them

marketable, neath’ the guise of

a need for structure & syntax---

the editor themselves in particular

remembers when they were younger &

not yet crushed by realities of the industry,

when they had dreams of their own &

it was only their own work which they

refashioned & polished, hoping to one day be

read & revered, as opposed to doing the mechanical work

for someone else whom for all intent & purpose,

they can’t for the life of them see why people buy

their s**t.