Algorithms Are Authoritarian…or… The Curse of 1500 Words

For a poet,

You’re expressing a lot of words

When you are are asking for money

To support your greatness.

Tell us your house in Detroit is fully paid for

And that you lack the money to finance its renewal.

Tell us that you have had seven books published

That haven’t become best sellers.

Tell us that these are the challenges

Of being a full-time poet

While you lead summer writing workshops

Amongst the redwoods of the Mendocino Coast.

I wouldn’t be writing this

If not for your daily instagram posts.

The posts that are flattening your art.

Draining your face of color.

Hiding the fact

That I am now

A dissociated consumer

Asked to be in thrall

Of your commitment

To planetary healing.

It’s tiring.

You’ve begun using extra adjectives,

Excessively using ADverbs,

Writing 1490 extra words

To hide your desperation.

To hide that you are not truly committed to your craft.

To hide that you are quickly becoming

A guru poet.

Algorithms are authoritarian.

Please don’t become

A passive-aggressive version

Of Marjorie-Greene Taylor.

It’s tiring.

It’s tiring.

It’s tiring.