To: Literature, Inc.

I am skipping

12-point manuscripts, triple spaced

(no returns without SASEs, they say).

I am skipping

entrance and selection

fees (who reads for pay?)

and I am skipping

the nodding and the shaking of heads

(what may not or must be writ).

Awaiting rejection

I am skipping

waylayment

(weeks without a word).

I am skipping edits and Q &A,

and I am skipping payment

and a chance to be heard.

I am also skipping

rap-fashion

slap-dashing,

believe me,

for a buck or a photo-shot the same

and, forgive me,

I am also skipping

glossy pages

that shrivel like plastic in flame.

And I am skipping

(in alphabetical order)

everything

not

flipping

gripping

ripping

yipping

zipping.

In other words, all the polite capture-bonding

I am skipping.

I am skipping.