What better way to introduce you to Overland Overloaded blogger Karen Andrews than with her poem gloating (hypothetically, she assures me) over the failure of an enemy’s blog. The poem was first published on her parenting blogsite and nods to Clive James’ “The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered” and to the literary jealousy lurking in us all.  

The Blog of My Enemy is Failing

The blog of my enemy is failing
and I celebrate.
Gone is the fizz and dapper swagger
of awards won and rankings claimed.
Your Fitzgeraldean party is over.
What good is precocious verve,
or the generosity of ‘linky-loving’ be
when even the trolls,
sniffing the wounds, have left you alone
for gamer prey, for other bombs,
the Gigli’s of Moveable Type,
whose writers’ no amount of self-promotion could surpass
their own self-interest.

My enemy’s blog, its clean lines and symmetry,
now reposes uncomfortably in the reflective rays of Perez’s pink.
His undeniable precocity
is to be found among
‘Project 365 of cow udders’.
His bravery, declared by others when first known himself,
his devotion to community,
is there amongst “Celebrating Monkfish —
They can’t help being ugly”.
And (oh, yes) his talent,
his talent no amount of photoshopping
could ever hope to boost is now
a nice match to @Fake_Seth_Godin
who promises,
“You (only wish you) can be as successful as me.”

Now, soon my own blog could fail,
though not to the catastrophic extent
the failure of my enemy’s blog has managed to achieve,
since in my blog’s particular case it will be due
to an alexa glitch, or borked Technorati – –
merely a temporary error.
The quality is irrefutable.
But in case such an anomaly were to occur
and spoil my mirth, it will be countered nicely
by the documentation of this occasion.
Open the box and pass me a cigar!
For the blog of my enemy is failing
and I am dancing.