How Do You Answer

How long do you labor on a poem that refuses to be completed? How long do you let it try your patience? How long do you tolerate its stubbornness? It’s defiance? How long do you let it play the petulant brat and torture your confidence before you start to hurl foul invectives and death threats at it and it begins to sense it may be deleted at the touch of a key unless it begins to loosen and open and you begin to feel a morning’s frustrations turning into hope and resolvement, like a racing horse lagging behind, then, rounding the final stretch, it gives way to a sudden burst of speed crossing the finish line!