A story about a poem

[aslant]

this is a poem for mthrtongue, who asked, what should a poem not do? what can't a poem do? and i said, a poem probably can't run for president, or get a social security number, or have a bank account. she challenged me to write a poem that actually did that, so i wrote this.




A story about a poem.



This poem I found malingering,
downtown by the Foreign Auto Body
& it refused at first to admit
to me it was unemployed.
I said--
I’ve been there, man,
it ain’t no thing.
It looked sideways, embarrassed,
said, I haven’t coughed up
so much as a half-metaphor
in weeks. I’m dry, man,
you know how it goes.
Yeah, I said, but I tried
to keep it distracted
because by then we were only half a block
from the Social Security Administration building.
Without proof of citizenship you're sunk
and the last thing you need is more bad news,
I said--No one likes a poem with bad news.
Go on, get a card, you’ll be halfway there,
we’ll get you out of this unemployment rut.
Go ahead, I said.
I’ll wait here.

I drank my Dunkin Donuts coffee
& waited.
Soon, sure enough,
certified & still embarrassed
out it came. Sheepish,
clutching the little card.
I said, see? You’ll be a stanza
in no time, you’ll be a specialty limerick
before you know it. I know this guy,
he’s looking for a good poem,
he’ll put you to work. You’ll be in couplets
up to your ears.
No one likes an idle poem.
I feel bad, you know, it said,
am I a charity case or what?
No, I said, it was on my way,
really, no trouble.
Really, I said. We parted ways
& I came home and wrote this.








Jesse Castaldi
October 24, 2004

Comments

[ricecricket.livejournal.com]

ha! i love it. strangely the first line may be my favorite.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

thanks!
it was fun to write. and easier, i will add, than the challenge once upon a time of following your line prompt, "the invention of three boardgames & 32 sex positions" or whatever it was. i think i write best from odd prompts :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/lion_/]

i love love love this. it's wonderful. sort of fairy-tale-ish but so good. thumbs up. i will have to stick this in my memorable entries ;)

[aslant.livejournal.com]

thanks, jenn :)

it's one of those poems that feels real, to me, even if the voice feels borrowed.

[tasteetriceps.livejournal.com]

Damn girl, i love it.

The elusive clever ending! Tie that ribbon into a bow!

poem unemployment up 3% during the current administration

[hu-d-fugami.livejournal.com]

it's a little sad to think of my poems wandering the streets, panhandling hey, man, uh I ran out of gas and my wife is waiting for me uptown can you spare like five bucks? Several of them are shivering outside the bus stop in the before-dawn light waiting for the mission to open for breakfast, and one I know in particular is standing on the street corner, squeegee and spray bottle in hand hey mister! mister! and he catches your eye and there's a moment of recognition and then the light turns green and traffic moves you away.

Here's a old and tired haiku I remember well, sitting on the curb with a hand-lettered WILL WORK FOR PUBLICATION sign. He smiles, gaptoothed, and I fish in my pockets for change, knowing that I should spring for a good hot lunch at Denny's.

Geez, Jesse-- Is this all my fault? If I had imbued them with a sense of responsibility, or perhaps a little more positive self-image... Now I'll spend the rest of the day worrying about my poems and feeling guilty.

Yet another good reason to vote Democrat this election...

[aslant.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you should feel guilty, really. What you should be doing is creating as many new poems as possible, to put all those out of work could-be poems to work. Without your active poetry writing, you are passively contributing to the unemployment problem! If you've written a poem so bad it was out of work by the next day, it's time to revisit that poem and at least revise it a little, give it a dusting off, and if you can't completely spruce it up then at least you can put it in semi-permanent 'revise' mode, which at least guarantees it a tiny income for however long it sits waiting.

trickle-down poetry economics

[hu-d-fugami.livejournal.com]

Who needs Keynes when you have Keats! I love your idea-- put your words to WORK! It's like a conservation corps for (not so good) poetry! Like the Federal Theater Project for (sappy) prose! Think of all those little, happy, mediocre poems working side-by-side on an assembly zine, or sewing merrily for piecework in a garment-district chapbook-- great, burly novel chapters in their white coats swinging cleavers in the meat packing plants of NaNoWriMo.

Couplets re-shelving in bookshops! Dangling participles slouching and snapping gum at the record store counter! That same gap-toothed haiku at the flower shop, holding out a carefully crafted bouquet for my sweetie! Write more to prevent literary unemployment? I'll do it!

[drowned-books.livejournal.com]

I was idly browsing (via Heidi's LJ) when I came across this poem. I love it to pieces - so clever and funny without sounding the slightest bit forced. Gosh you're good!! :-)

[aslant.livejournal.com]

thank you very much!