Gasoline
Blame’s got little to do with how he proves his mettle tonight in the back parking lot of the Holiday Inn. It’s not the pot, his exhausted parents, the sagging small town on the brink. Stark prospects alone can’t say what praise and only praise knows: his obeisance stoked by the jumpy gods to seethe by day and drag the night. In stacks and frayed bell-bottomed denim he ducks behind the rear bumper of a ’73 Cadillac Coupe Deville: chrome rocker molding; soft Ray tinted glass—the same late model and make his father vowed just last week he’d one day bygod own. In the moonlight a...
Read MoreRefugees
What is left if nothing’s left? The tap loses teeth-blood, Each empty cup smiles with malice. We have fallen over the fence, Our pictures torn, a history in bags, We walk like a cluster of wraiths As dull legs trudge over stones. The old will wither with frost When the night comes sooner. And if the children cry in the night There is nothing more to say Than that the stars are hungry...
Read MoreFeatured Works: Week of May 10 (Humor on Writing)
What more perfect way to follow the National Poetry Writing Month challenge than with humorous works about the writing process? This week’s contributors give us reason to smile. The poem “Survey Says” by Lara Dolphin imagines “bad poetry” as the topic on the game show “Family Feud.” “Dear Mr. Shakespeare” by Janice Canerdy is a spoof rejection of “Macbeth.” The haiku “Fishing” by Donald Gaither compares writing poetry to a popular...
Read MoreDear Mr. Shakespeare
Dear Mr. Shakespeare: Sir, some are convinced that your wisdom and creative genius are unsurpassed; others believe someone else is writing those so-called masterpieces that bear your name. To point 2 above, I say “Sir Francis Bacon? Christopher Marlowe?” To point 1, I say “Baloney!” I have waded through your most recent bloodbath, Macbeth, which you recently proffered for publication. Having recovered from several nightmares about drowning in an ocean of blood, I am ready to respond. Since I can’t address every weakness in this lurid “historical”...
Read MoreSurvey Says
after Komar, Melamid & Soldier Come on down, it’s time to play The Feud. Top five answers are on the board. We asked 100 inebriated literature professors to name something about the most unwanted poem. Buzz! A haiku. Show me haiku! Number one answer— McGonagall family, will you pass or will you play? They said bring it on. Tell me something if you know’em about the most unwanted poem. Forced rhyme. Good answer, good answer. Let’s see forced rhyme. All right, William? Addressing insensate things. Oh, glorious game board; show me odes to inanimate objects! You might sweep this...
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