How Do I Get Top Story Please?

How Do I Get Top Story Please?

I pour my heart out, line after line,

hoping one day Vocal will look my way

and finally say

yes — this one.

I check the site like it owes me something,

refresh after refresh,

each time hoping the screen will change,

each time knowing it won’t.

It feels like shouting into a locked room,

doesn’t it?

I give blood in my writing,

I give the ache in my chest,

I give the memories that still sting,

and still they look past me

as if I am not even in the room.

Then I start thinking,

maybe they have favourites,

maybe I am not one of them,

maybe they pick from the same shelf

while I sit on the corner one

covered in dust.

here’s the part that matters,

they do not decide my worth,

they do not know my voice

the way my readers know it,

they do not see the bruised honesty

that only I can write.

Top Story is a spotlight,

and spotlights swing

whether I deserve them or not.

But my work,

Is raw, sharp, bleeding work,

outlives the swing of any light.

I don’t need to write with blood or tears,

I already do,

that’s why it hurts,

that’s why it’s real.

And I will break through,

not because Vocal chooses me,

but because my writing refuses to stay small.

And still I sit, write my heart out for a top story,

checking eagerly every free moment,

yet still no top story for me.

How do I get Vocal to recognise me?

What do I have to do?

Maybe write with my blood or tears,

and still there will be no top story for me.

I realise I am not Vocal’s favourite of the pot.

As for top story or story winner,

Vocal says, oh no,

we have the last word,

so certainly not.