My Hungry Friend

My friend
My enemy
My hungry white page

I throw my words to you
My usual supply of trite, ordinary words and phrases
But none will stick
They just sink into your infinite white abyss

Never satisfied
You gobble them like a voracious cosmic paper shredder

Yet you remain empty and white
And waiting for more

An unmannerly companion
You hiccup unnecessary commas
You belch sentences too long
And burp up improper grammar

But I continue to feed your gaping maw
Digging deep into my creative storehouse
for subtleties, and melodies, and rhythms
Until finally, you yawn, satiated on fast food verbs
and take out nouns

And my words begin to hold
My poem emerges
My story told

Until you wake
And want to be fed again

Marv Himmel