He’s a Vampire

Not long ago, a noted academic

Told me, in reference

To my misuse of the word “polemic”

In an abysmal book review sentence

And to the concupiscence

Of my more solipsistic work,

That maybe I should shirk

Composition by belief,

And in repentance

I should revise my errant sentence

To one with more orthodox inherence—

Smirking, I left him to his attic,

Smug in his cape, slouching in the murk.

-Tim Strange

Illustration by Joel Brown