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Printed from https://writing.com/main/books/entry_id/882012-unpaid-line-editor
by Rhyssa Author IconMail Icon
Rated: 18+ · Book · Contest Entry · #2081410
my entries for the Construct Cup
#882012 added May 13, 2016 at 12:17am
Restrictions: None
unpaid line editor
I don’t mind it,
most of the time.
when they ask me
if I would read,
proof,
turn their words
into polish—into
truths worthy of A’s
from their professors’ pens . . .
and then,
it’s half past midnight,
and someone’s at the door
with eight pages.
she needs ten.
page by page,
paragraph by paragraph,
sentence by sentence,
word by misspelled word,
we wrestle this crocodile essay—
tame it,
pray that it doesn’t
drag us down,
drown us in a sea
of false leads and incoherent ideas.
I type.
I’m faster, but I can’t
write it for her—it’s her grade,
her work,
her sense of spelling
that turns even easy words
into a red-lined mess
that only experience
and her help can clean.
it’s almost five
when we’re done—
ten pages, double spaced
full of her ideas,
her work,
my sweat,
my sleep—
my incipient migraine
as I calm my mind enough
to find my bed
just in time to get up again.

Prompt for: May 12, 2016

© Copyright 2016 Rhyssa (UN: sadilou at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Printed from https://writing.com/main/books/entry_id/882012-unpaid-line-editor