I see them in their dim chambers
bent and bleary
enslaved to my addiction,
under sweatshop pressure to produce
my chosen drug:
one
more
manuscript
They grind teeth, shredding pages,
tossing away faulty pens, numb-fingered,
nearly fainting from the loss of words-
I have drawn all this from them.
The editors, printers, booksellers,
tour arrangers, all
are 50-cent runners and players
in the syndicate of my supply.
Ravenous, single-minded, misanthropic,
I knock away the giving hand
and eat the book.
Elaine Bentley Baughn is a (pick one) Feng Shui practitioner, psychotherapist, poet, gospel singer, survivor of the 60's. Her first published poem was "Radicalization" printed in a paper called High Street in Oxford, OH, near where she grew up. She lived and worked in seven states and is now into her third career. Most recently, her poems have appeared in Bone(volumes 1 and 2) and Through Spiders Eyes. She is the author of four chapbooks, the latest of which, Portraits and Landscapes, will be published shortly after she enters the 21st century.