Writing for an audience

Who do you write for?
Write for the press.
Write for the Pope in his very smart dress
Write for the mice that sit under the boards
Write for the masses and write for the hoards.

Who do you write for?
Write for the queen.
Write for the man with the glass tambourine.
Write for engagements and write on bequests
Write for the girl in the lavender dress.

Write for your teachers
and write for the noise
that sits on the tube train with smart equipoise
Write for the tramp with the flower in her hat
who sits on the ground with her white ginger rat.

Write for your breakfast
and write for your life
and apple bum bowers
and being too nice.
Write for surprises
and write to be sure
and the blue hatted man
who slips in through the door.

Write for your brother
and write for your Dad
and the neighbour with false teeth
and you when you're mad.

Write to remember
write to forget
write to tell lies
and to get out of debt.

Write for the oak trees
because they stand sturdy
and write for the squirrels
all nutty and wordy.

Write for the fairies
quite nonpareiled
and the knots in the wind
holly veiled.

Write for that crack
in the half torn down wall
write to earn cash for the dolldrums toll.
Write for your fans
and write for your stories
and write for your losses
and write for your glories
But most of all all when you take up your pen
write to remember you're real again.