Plagiarism's Paranoia


Look at her!
She is writing
my words ---
stealing my voice
to ink it as her own.

I would scream,
but she has cut
my vocal chords
into plagiarism.

Even this nudge
on her shoulder
won’t dislodge her pen.
She just keeps copying
my thoughts across
the lined pages.

Is there nothing new
under the sun?
Or are we caught in
a spiral of cosmic
verbal recycling?

She says her muse
is the inspiration
for her work……
Why does this
artificial poet
look just like me?


©Susie Clevenger 2012
The "fourth wall" refers to the imaginary barrier which exists between the "open box" of a theatrical stage and the people gathered below in the seats. "Breaking the fourth wall" is a literary trope in which a character, in a play, cartoon strip, movie or novel, acknowledges their fictionality by directly addressing the reader, making eye contact with the audience or acknowledging their role as a presentation of reality. 

Kerry O'Conner at Real Toad's posed the question : Can the fourth wall be broken in poetry for rhetorical or dramatic effect?"  This is my attempt to prove it can be done

Kerry's Wednesday Challenge ~ Breaking the Fourth Wall


Comments

Kerry O'Connor said…
Oh Brava, Susie! Your approach to breaking the fourth wall is very subtle, you had me going right up to the last stanza. Your subject is so topical too. So many times I have wondered when someone will catch on that I am just pretending to be a poet! You raise a very valid question about originality too. After 7 centuries of English verse, can there be anything new under the sun?
Laurie Kolp said…
Nice twist at the end, Susie.
Ella said…
I loved hearing your voice! Well done....I do feel the tension and have seen this happen, so many times!
Powerful~
Sherry Blue Sky said…
This is so effective, Susie. I was totally wondering who was plagiarizing. Your poem illustrates how well this approach works. Love the closing lines. So well done!
Brother Ollie said…
I like your take on this - bringing the theater on board really works.
Unknown said…
How clever are you? Quite! And don't we all feel like we're just a little bit make-believe?
Helen said…
Great, great, great! I can't count the number of times I've pondered what you have presented to us ~~ loved it!
Margaret said…
This is cleverly wicked AND you wrote it so fast. I'm awed as it took me off and on all day.
Susan said…
WOW!! What Kerry said, + I wonder what Neil Gaiman would do with this idea--there's a world of muses parallel to and in communication with this one who resent us using their stuff as our own OR who feed us their stuff and snigger while we use it. Remember what he did in American Gods? (I am aware that compared to these ideas, the muse in your poem is an everyday occurrence. I wish I trusted mine more not to want to embarrass me.)