the poetry rejection (John Grochalski)
in 1999 i was
three years out of college working in a library basement
checking-in magazines and newspapers for a living delivering mail and stocking book donations making fifteen grand a year
which mostly went to rent, bills, gas money and smokes
she had written three books of poetry in twenty years but was well-known around the city
for being one of the hard-working literary big shots she’d been my teacher in college
had given me c.k. williams and a b minus for missing too many of her classes in one small stretch
i’d read two of her books on a plane from florida back to pittsburgh
82