UPON RECEIVING A REJECTION LETTER

I witnessed the eater of exotic cheese,

the drinker of priceless wine, the man

of modern appetite adorned in jewels;

for we knew better than to dine in rags.

He searched among the finer fruits distantly,

with pale hands like the Scottish Queen.

Hm! The darkness of the plums, and also

the softness of their skin, caught his eye.

Before I turned away, I watched him pick

one from the blazon bowl; he held it up

in a cradle of bone fingers and looked at it

with strange uncertainty. Then he put it back.

Matthew James Hodgson