listen.
i don't think
being popular on social media
has ever been a particularly
bad thing,
because if your words can
play people's heartstrings
like mozart played piano,
if your words can
draw masses of people to you
like holy cities draw the religious,
if your words can
shape the way we think
like revolutions shape the world,
that's something to be proud of.
but if you can't do that
without copying the greatest
writers of all time,
if you can't do that
without rearranging or recycling sentences
that have already been written,
if you can't do that
without worrying about likes
or reposts or follower counts,
that's something to be ashamed of.
how dare you encourage plagiarism
in exchange for popularity?
how dare you sacrifice originality
in exchange for fame?
how dare you make a mockery
out of one of the world's most beautiful
forms of art?
how dare you treat this like a joke?
poetry is better than this.
you are better than this.
at least, you should be.
-c.h.