BAD ENDING # 10:
THE FUNNY-BOOK MAKER
By John R. Platt
The comic-book artist
Got lost in his work
Black lines
Inked on white paper
Over and over and over
Two pages of art a day
Then three
Then five
Then ten
He no longer slept
He called his editor:
"Send more scripts!"
He neglected his health
His friends stopped calling
His wife left him
He didn't care
Only the stories mattered
Then, one day,
He ran out of ink
"No time to get supplies,"
He thought,
And reached for his Xacto knife
The found him two weeks later
Drained and dry
Sad and alone
But surrounded
By the best work of his career
It never saw print.
(One of a series of "Bad Endings" poems I have written over the years. This was originally published in January 2006 in BARE BONE 8, Raw Dog Screaming Press. Copyright 2006, 2016 John R. Platt)
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