At The Expense Of Critics Poem by Sydney Daniels

'Your words aren't right',
'Your structure sucks, '
'I would have used 'opportunity'
Instead of 'luck' '.

'Your message is confusing',
'Your stance is just too strong',
'Listen to me, I'm a poet too,
But unlike you, I'm never wrong'.

Everyone has an opinion.
If I worried about what the critics say,
About my choices, my work, my life,
How would I ever get through my day?

Am I blinking too fast?
Am I breathing too loud?
Jeans or slacks, pink or blue,
What would make my critics proud?

Soda or water, sandwich or soup,
I can't pick between margarine or butter!
Trying to guess what my critics would do,
Just makes my heart go all aflutter.

You are the one who lives with your choices,
So don't worry what the critics say.
That word, that sentence, that stance is yours
That whole damn poem is yours, they can't take it away.

I write because I think,
I think before I write,
Lucky for the critics that I do,
Or this would have been a lot less polite!