Class Metaphor

The workshop facilitator instructs us not to lead the reader with a heavy hand. If you’re gonna write, be implicit. If you’re gonna be implicit, employ metaphor. To practice metaphor, read metaphor, is to practice poetry, like faith. The strongest way to evangelize the reader is with an imperative: Read. I’m told: Read to save democracy. I read: Employ repetition to amplify the precarity of the poem’s breath. Often I read poetry and it's aha! after aha! All hand, no heart. Soft as simile. My backpack goes everywhere I go, trucking paperbacks, the next revolution. What is the revolution if not a rapture? I joke: Man, my back hurts. I’m told: Soften your connotations. I say: Every image, every object, bears a connotation. I say: The average paperback costs $17.85 when the minimum wage is $7.25. I say: Each paperback costs three hours after tax. I say: There’s ten paperbacks in my bag, do the math. I say: You softened the word democracy into a platitude. I say: I can’t afford to keep reading books. I say: My back, my back, my back. I’m told: The metaphor, the metaphor, the metaphor.