San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

Terry McCarty

Writer’s Block Explained—Version Three

Stare at the blinking cursor.
Watch it pulsate.
Count the number
of cursor blinks
in a sixty-second time period.
Retrieve stopwatch from desk drawer.
Count the number
of minutes it takes to stare
at the throbbing cursor
before self-hypnosis takes place
and you enter a land
where something surreal
may occur
to generate verse
filling in white space
on a computer screen
where a cursor flashes on-off-on-off
and waits patiently
for something to make it move.