Pay to Play by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal

I started out to send a poetry

submission to a literary journal.

It was easy to get the poems

together. I entered my information

and my bio. Before I could send

the poems, a window popped up

saying the fee to submit my poems

was $26. I decided to keep 

my poems and my $26.

I found another literary journal

that did not charge a penny.

With my $26 I bought myself

two beers, a sandwich, and

a cheap poetry book. It was 

happy hour and I was able to 

get one more beer for the road.

I do not need to pay someone

to read my poems when someone

else would be glad to read them

free of charge, which is how

things ought to be.

Luis was born in Mexico, lives in California, and works in the mental health 

field in Los Angeles, CA. His poems have appeared in Ariel Chart, Beatnik Cowboy,

Dope Fiend Daily, Unlikely Stories, and Zygote In My Coffee.