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Decide what gives you feelings.

Feeling feelings.

Sad feelings.

No one wants to hear

about sunshine and shit.

When someone asks you

a question, answer like:

My soul is black and bitter

like coffee. And darkness.

Go now to Starbucks.

Bang that keyboard

LOUD AS FUCK.

That way people will know

that you are a writer.

Don’t revise. Because fuck revision, right?

Your first draft was perfection.

Oh, and don’t proofreading.

Proofreading is for the weak.

Go to your high school reunion, put on

everybody’s nametags, get drunk,

and say, “I am ALL these people!”

Go to a poetry reading. Make the audience feel

the things you want them to feel.

Or whatever. As long as they react.

You want attention, right?

Why else would you do this to yourself?

And when you read?

Emotion. Do it!

Flap about and scream like. a. dick.

Walk off that stage.

Do it again, asshole.

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Summer Qabazard is a half-Kuwaiti, half-English poet and English instructor. She grew up in Kuwait and now lives in Waterford, Michigan, with her partner, three dogs, and seven cats.