You Can't Quibble About Harvesting

Reginald Southey
Lewis Carroll (1857)
Fair Use

You ape my bones
with your humpbacked muse.

I am buried under the glass
of all the mirrors I tried
to cut into reflections
I could never carry.

I stare at the twisted glory
traveling up and down your words,
and I find mine are grossly inadequate.

Every haunting needs a host
so I will slip between your ribs
where the moan needs ink.

If there is nothing new under the sun,
you can’t quibble about harvesting.

What’s yours is mine.
My cup is full…Yours is empty.
I can turn your art into gold
while feeding you pennies.

©Susie Clevenger 2017

As my muse would have it this image took me to Spotify. I have a lot of music friends and the business of music is grossly unfair to them. "Songwriter Would Need 288 Million Spins to Equal Average Spotify Employee Salary." Read about it here.

Comments

Kerry O'Connor said…
There is too much exploitation in the music industry. It is a shame to see talent going to waste, or being used to feather other people's nests.
hyperCRYPTICal said…
Visited Spotify, so understand your words. The close is telling.
Anna :o]
brudberg said…
Talent has always been exploited... before it were the publishers and record companies that have now been replaced by Apple Amazon and Spotify... at least we can help them by listening.
WildChild47 said…
Every haunting needs a host
so I will slip between your ribs
where the moan needs ink.

If there is nothing new under the sun,
you can’t quibble about harvesting.

- these stanzas and lines are stellar!

It's such an interesting piece, many layered, because as you've noted, you're thoughts turned to exploitation, and you've covered, discovered and probed beyond one specific aspect or medium. This resonates in regards to all human behaviours and relationships. It's rather loaded, and forcefully demands an audience - and a response.
Fireblossom said…
The world--people--are so grossly unfair to one another. It wearies me.
Sanaa Rizvi said…
This is so potent. There is a lot of swindling in such industries where talent is destroyed and preyed upon by others.
X said…
Comparison is surely one of the roots of all evil.
We are never fair to ourselves in that bargain.

Theft is definitely part of art. Whether wrong
or right.

the mirrors cut into reflections you are unable to carry
and
the haunting needing a host, slip between the ribs/ink
stanzas are definitely inspired writing, Susie.
Vivian Zems said…
Every haunting needs a host
so I will slip between your ribs
where the moan needs ink.

Perfect lines!
Brendan said…
The qualifying bit at the end did change my reading some -- money always changes things -- but leave it to the dead to turn a jam session into a lament, deep and abiding as big waves on a shore. Second stanza is stellar for me. Was music robbed, its spirit stolen, when first pressed into vinyl and sent out without instrumentation on ghostly radio waves?
Sreeja said…
Very powerful last stanza....loved the poem...."every haunting..."---that stanza is so beautiful!!
Jim said…
I am reminded of Solomon's 'vanity, vanity, all is vanity, (there is) nothing new under the sun'. Leaches. Several professions feed on the work of others by offering them uneeded 'help' such as finders and agents. Some do earn their pay, i.e. a cut, though. You have a clever muse to help working this out into poetry.
..