Funny Thing Being A Writer by SALENA GODDEN

Most of the time you don’t get to do any writing

A lot of the time you wonder where the writing went

Oftentimes you miss the writing

And missing writing feels like nothing else

Sometimes its like an absence of a horse between your thighs

Or a wave crashing over your head

Or a sweet swallow, a taste in your throat

Or an ache in your chest that hurts

Missing writing is a bit like missing a person

But the person is the real you

And you pick up a pencil and your notebook

Looking for substance and worth

For some sort of healing balm

You know you only have an afternoon

Or less until you are required

Not to write anymore

And that writing is hot

That writing is like an affair

It’s a hard-motel-fuck of a write

You make that time mean something

And you don’t wash your hands after

So you can smell yourself on your fingers

Then its off back to the front of the shop

Dressing the windows, selling your wares

You are the head chef of your own restaurant

You’ve got hungry customers that need servicing

Got something in the oven waiting to rise

Got some good stuff ready to publish on ice

Your larder is full of writings you did years ago

Back when you were cold and poor and thin

When all you wanted to do was be a writer

When all you ever did was write all day and night

And nobody expected you to do anything else but write

Back when you thought writing was all that writers had to do.

(c) Salena Godden. 2015

‘Funny Thing Being A Writer’

For more of Salena Gooden, visit her website