WANTED: Sharp eyed editor

WANTED: Unflinching editor!

The poems sound
pretty good on that first reading,
even better the next day,
like a stew that has sat overnight.
After a week or so, the flavor has
flattened, even turned a bit rancid.
What seemed to be a clever stream
of consciousness shows nothing more
than a lack of disciplined editing,
an overabundance of so-called speech clutters,
the ands, you knows, thens, and so-ons.
Repeatedly scanning the poems under
a focused beam of concentrated light
and pressure allows the words to interdiffuse,
the clutters to evaporate, and for the transformation
to proceed from an ugly lump of coal
into a brilliant diamond .