Dear Sam

A poetic letter to a trolling critic

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” — Teddy Roosevelt

Dear Sam,

I have delayed the tap-dancing monologue
surrounding your letter

due to
my fear of failure.

But since I’ve recognized that when you fear too much,
you‘re bound to fail.

At least that’s what an old goalie coach said
to me as he pummeled ball after ball at my head
screaming, “Get the f#*$% up,”
over and over and again.

(He was the best coach I ever had.)

And after all these years
of random endeavors, publications, and travels,

I get called a genius and a fake on the same day —
when I don’t claim to be either.

“Lack of imagery, useless diatribes, hackneyed platitudes, agony…”

That was similar to my first horrible written review
from a customer on Amazon
with the codename: “Samuel…