The Remaindered Novelist

                                                                        

                                The wastebasket is the writer’s best friend.                                                                                                                                            - Isaac Singer

                                                   Remaindered, v: (to dispose of a book left unsold at a reduced price)

The Remaindered Novelist

 

Once had a debut named Cannon

spectacularly reviewed

bound in calfskin and vellum.

 

But a blogger was unkind

And a brushfire engulfed him.

Now he’s remaindered—

a sale table has-been.

 

Seagulls caw and scavenge

outside his writer’s retreat

on a windswept dune

to which he absconded.

 

With spring’s coy blush

tourists trek over his dune

with painted toes and smart phones

on a hunt for the juice.

 

But his jump shot was perfected

with crumpled up vellum

and no trace remains of

Cannon’s war-weary fellow.

Written for Shay's Word Garden - "The Legacy of Ladysmith"  Her word list challenge this week for an original poem was taken from the forgotten novel, The Legacy of Ladysmith by John Kenny Crane. 

I had never heard of this novel (the Boer Wars?) but it sounds intriguing and I can think of many more worthy novels to be relegated to the sale table. 

What writer doesn't fear the dreaded remaindering?