On Grammarly

I am staring at blank screens

rotating through unrevised pieces of poems

eyeing word counts as I type, backspace, completely delete.

Grammarly tells me I'm a writing powerhouse,

4,142 words analyzed this week, but it doesn't tell me how many survived,

how many made it, how many I've locked away

unfinished, untitled, lacking direction,

but that line sounds so nice

I save it and move along.

I consider going analog, burning through pages and pens,

they'll end up under my couch, pushed off the coffee table and swatted away.

That wouldn't tell me I used 1,618 unique words over seven days,

but it also wouldn't criticize my mechanics,

artificially intelligent and ignorant to the concept of stylistic choice.

To fix one error, press Tab.

No, thank you, I do not wish to be rewritten by computer systems,

even if it means I finish nothing at all.