To Be Published

You will publish this poem,

Not because you need to,

Or that as a writer I have

Created a glittering trail of

Glamour and gloria from

My writing desk to the

Literary world.

You will publish this poem,

Not for the thousands of

Extra publications it will

Help to sell. Not for the

Attention that it will

Secure any anthology in

Which it is present.

You will publish this poem,

Not because you like it. It

Doesn’t rhyme, have any

Steady metre or adhere to

Any poetic convention. It

Doesn’t look neat on a

Page or make sense.

You will publish this poem,

Not because you are in any

Way obliged to me, you are

Not. The poem is the ugly

Runt of the meeting of a tired

Mind and a bottle of gin. It

Isn’t a masterpiece.

You will publish this poem,

Not on the merit of it’s overt

Self consciousness or flare

For the dramatic. Not due to

It blushing like a schoolgirl

At the wrong end of an ill

Intended stare.

You will publish this poem,

Not because it is short

And could fill a gap between

Pages four and five, could

Divide free-verse and sonnets.

No. You will publish this poem,

Because it told you to.