Writing from a Skiff

On September the eigth, 1952,
Hemingway published his last,
a book about a man who fished alone
from a skiff for eighty-four days
and caught nothing.
Then he catches the biggest fish of his life,
only to have it eaten by sharks
before he returns to shore.
I sometimes think I am that old man
fishing from a skiff
in a sea of publishing houses
and mediocre novels
and one day I'll land a publishing contract
only to lose it to the sea of apathy
before I reach the shore.
Ah! I have written ten --
seventy four to go.