Redux. Redo. Renew. Reuse. Revisit. Revise. Revise with reason. Revise with raison d’être. Revise with raisins. Rework. Rework with respect. Rework with a rubdown. Reword with raisins. Replay, replay, replay. Reward with raisins. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and ... reward with raisins. Reader’s reaction? Regretfully, this roundelay, though resolute, is roundly redundant, resoundingly rigid, and risibly ripe for ridicule. Remand it roughly, robustly, and ruthlessly. (But remember to retain those riotous raisins because they resonate with the rebellious, recalcitrant, and unruly rabble-rousers, ruffians, and riff-raff. Rah-rah-rah!)
Cindy Hochman is the president of “100 Proof” Copyediting Services and the editor-in-chief of the online journal First Literary Review-East. Her latest chapbook is Telling You Everything (Unleash Press, 2022). Cindy lives in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where she reads, writes, edits, meditates, learns tai chi, and studies the Russian language.