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UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY
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CHRIS MIDDLEMAN
Simic Reads at the University Students listen with the same enthusiasm you see at the DMV on a Saturday morning Women professors drape themselves in beige shawls, embroidered with folk-art flowers illustrating the vinegary perfume they wear Academician men look at him sideways wondering why he made it and they didn’t They seem to mistake his humility for some kind of Zen precision clarity I realize how far off they are when they approach me to buy his collections, hoping to warm themselves with his paperbacks Quicker than I, they lacerate my small talk with cruel barbs and clichéd jokes about their wallets and my prices Of course, never realizing how short they’ve sold me Feeling Clairvoyant at the Punk Show In tune with ridiculous new wave throwback nonsense, she claps up high, above her vintage painter’s cap- the cherry on her homemade XL t-shirt cake Eyes like a trout on ice crooked nose no separation between chin and neck Me, mesmerized by this prehistoric turtle dance My vision all spirals like Jimmy Stewart’s head in Vertigo Through the mist I began to see her good-enough haircut her abusive common law boyfriend her single-parent daughter living at home her throbbing urge to vote Republican late Social Security checks botched hip surgeries Who am I to fault her for dancing? Chris Middleman is originally from Downingtown, Pennsylvania. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in several magazines including The New York Quarterly, Zygote in My Coffee, Pemmican, and the Orange Room Review. http://www.nyqpoets.net/poet/chrismiddleman |
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© 2008 Underground Voices |
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