always an echo, never the voice

apparently talent is reason enough for suspicion.

simply etching my soul into verse–

i am not 

capable, they said. 

rather than recognition,

i am awarded an undeserved conversation:

“academic honesty”

the real dishonesty remains

that the simple integration

of an em dash–

means my work must not

be my own.

suddenly, my hours spent revising

blur with a simple copy and paste–

first the assignment,

then the generated work to follow

a quick check to the revision history

would reveal how my edits 

are my own. yet they insist, 

that too could be fabricated.

anything to remain an echo,

never the voice–

that’s the doctrine; talent is

a construct. humans confined 

by basic intelligence–

why even bother thinking at all?