|
I Channel Truman Capote
The Petulance of the Deceased:
Well, let me see. . .
Do you have any peanut butter?
I think I might like to spread some
on a cracker.
My, you seem to have
a large collection of bric-a-brac.
Nick-a-nac.
Is there a theme here?
Or is it all random stuff
you found in the street?
I like this one especially:
the plastic palm tree
with the sign
"Welcome to Brooklyn."
What kind of host are you?
Standing all-agog.
If you're expecting me to say something witty
then you've picked the wrong moment.
It's certainly dusty in here.
I think I'd like a glass of something.
*
The Omniscience of the Deceased:
The winning number is 3741823.
Put your money on Lubricious Sister in the 8th race at Santa Anita.
Just use some lemon juice.
The stain will come right out.
No. She doesn't love you anymore. Doesn't even
think of you.
How tedious you are.
The Moral Righteousness of the Deceased:
Yes. I did visit the house in Sagaponack on New Year's Eve. There were boys I knew living there. I was disappointed when
you answered the door. I was in a funk and sat down on the couch and didn't stir for hours while you and the boys
reveled at some poor poet's party. And during that time I absolutely did not do the nasty things you claim in that
defamatory--if happily unpublished--essay.
But, meanwhile, you got ripping drunk and spun your car on the ice, nearly killing everyone. Nauseating, your behavior,
really. I recommend you throw away that essay, in which you pretend to be the hero, and print this one, instead.
Sandy McIntosh's collections of poetry include The After-Death History of My Mother, Between Earth and Sky (Marsh Hawk Press), Endless Staircase (Street Press), Earth Works (Long Island University), Which Way to the Egress? (Garfield Publishers), and two chapbooks: Obsessional (Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry) and Monsters of the Antipodes (Survivors Manual Books). His prose includes Firing Back, with Jodie-Beth Galos (John Wiley & Sons), From A Chinese Kitchen (American Cooking Guild), and The Poets In the Poets-In-The-Schools (Minnesota Center for Social Research, University of Minnesota). His poetry and essays have been published in The New York Times, Newsday, The Nation, the Wall Street Journal, American Book Review, and elsewhere. His original poetry in a film script won the Silver Medal in the Film Festival of the Americas. He has been Managing Editor of Confrontation magazine published by Long Island University, and is Managing Editor of Marsh Hawk Press. (June 2007)
Close this screen and the menu will appear. If frames-incompatible, Click Lunarosity