She wants to ensure
she gets paid for her art
so she has stopped showing
until she is guaranteed
appropriate recompense.
Her goals are laudable,
her restraint commendable,
but her tactics impossible
– for me, at least.

I need to present.
I have to express my creativity.
If I don’t
I diminish.
I shrink.
I lose some sense of self.

I know full well
who will suffer most
if I can’t get my ideas out
even if presented
to blind eyes.
The world might not know the difference,
but if I couldn’t say
what I need to say
I would be somebody else
and
I wouldn’t want be someone else.

Or do I?
Is this the difference
between a craftsman
and an artist?
Is this the difference
between a dilettante
and a slave?
Or perhaps the reward I seek
is not financial
but something else.
It matters little.
She can chose
to do what she wants
with her art.
I have no such choice.