by K.D. Taylor

“If you love to write, it is not about the money.”
—opinion piece in Writers

“The pen is mightier than the sword,”
one playwright said of old,
yet it’s a mighty puny price
at which most penwork’s sold.

And starving writers number more
than any man can count,
while not one swordsman seems to starve
nor does his bank account.

Hear all the names of billionaires
the newsmen are reciting,
and try to name a single one
who made their wealth by writing.

The written word won’t likely yield
such market-worth ascensions,
Though Galileo called it once
the greatest of inventions.

But if you think that income gains
to writers are proceeding,
know I received not one red cent
for what you now are reading.