Dazzling

brace yourself

brace yourself
for the moment when
your wrung-out poem
is lost forever
in cyber-ether-nowhere
because of a key
accidently brushed
brace yourself
when that page repaints itself
blank, free of the poem
that has posted itself
free off to nobody
brace yourself for that loss,
curse yourself for not
composing in pencil
that a split second will not erase
brace yourself,
your poem wasn't great
but it was real
and it hurt you to write it
about your son
about loaves of bread
about how you put everything
into badly mixed metaphors
as a way of not facing up
to your trouble and pain
brace yourself