It’s been a fair old while
since I last sat down and wrote a 99-worder –
I can’t create to order…
or can I?
Maybe I can put my hypothetical pen to paper
(having cleared the decks
with my deck-clearing scraper)
and tumble out the words
halting before a hundred.
Or, hark, will I overshoot the mark,
hitting two or three times
the necessary words?
And then there is the subject matter:
what important issues shall I write upon?
And, lo and behold,
before any substantial themes
have been broached
and dwelt upon,
the 99-words have gone.
Graeme Sandford 