A Whole and a Nothing Between Them

The editors longed for language;
Hemingway served up sentences.

Originally it was lean
Language and skinny sentences,

But the editors demanded
We cut out all the adjectives,

So, in the end, just sentences
Served. Most often, the Troubadour

Oeuvre is three or four poems, but for
The women named as Trobairitz

It is usually only one.
If even one of us survives

Centuries, we will be lucky
(Adjective!) but so many lines

Swim in the seas that it would seem
Some will continue to surface.

What may happen when the silent
(Adjective!) thoughts casqued in these words

Of the writers begin to speak
For ourselves as the survivors?

The waves are alive with singing
Fishes in duets with their waves.