hands

if you took someone else's
masterpiece fiction novel
and you were able to erase it
from everybody's memory
and you copied it word for word
on your remington typewriter
and you typed your own name
on the new first draft manuscript
and you submitted it
to one of the big publishing houses
and they ate it up because how could they not?
and they signed you to a wonderful book deal
and they assigned you to a wonderful editor
and this wonderful editor knew
that this was your very first novel
and being that this was your very first submission
and that he or she has been editing novels
for twenty years & change
and therefore knows a thing or two more
about what works and what doesn't
and that he or she must hack it into a thousand pieces
to compensate for your lack of experience
it makes you wonder just how differently that book would read
it makes you wonder how many writers may have gotten it right
the first time around?