The Back Cover

[Wilyem Clark]

I hold in my hands an "advance reading copy,"
Not my own work. (I should be so lucky!)
On the back is some blurbage:
"Extensive reviewer and bookseller mailing";
"Bookseller dinners in [this place] and [that place]";
"Promotion and tour: [they list fifteen cities!]";
"First fiction features"; "Major magazine coverage";
Et-cet-tra, et-cet-tra.
My parallel self, in his pinnacled life
On an alternate globe, screams: "Such is my torment!"
He is the author who's been a success,
Who has put up with looncrap like this for a decade—
Drum-thumpy marketing, stumping at bookstores—
And he's had enough. "On the verge of extinction,"
He thought-wafts, despairing,
"It's ruined all impulse."
I'm low on gas, too, for antipodal reasons;
If I had a spouse (as by now he must have),
There'd at least be a buffer.
My buffers are empty; the squirrels ate their stuffing.
No need for them, anyway.
O where is the balance
Between the mad hermit
And the overtaxed sage?

[tailor STATELY]

A comedic tragedy.

"He thought-wafts"...
"I'm low on gas, too, for antipodal reasons;"...
"My buffers are empty; the squirrels ate their stuffing."

Fun stuff!

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY