by the blank lens, large and flat before their eyes.
you will know them by their patterns
plaid and polkas, paying no patronage to their prairie roots.
you will know them by their music,
the names spat back and forth in contest of i knew them when.
if you are still unsure, look to their bottom lip
look how it quivers, how it leans forward
waiting to pout.
be mindful of darting eyes at a party -- they seek
a hidden ladder behind you. do not trust anyone who sings
in full vibrato in the shower. count the proper nouns
and divide them by the kind words in each sentence.
when all else fails, look to their fingernails.
if they are not chewed ragged, you will know them.
the righteous cannot keep a manicure.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteyes oh my god yes.
ReplyDeletei was home over the weekend and discovered ted joans 'the hipsters' on my parents bookshelf down in the basement (somewhere near a collection of books so transparent and scathing that it makes me wonder how they ever got a mortgage).
at any rate - by the first sentence, i knew your subject. by your second stanza, i was sitting on the edge of my seat searching for this vision. by the third i am gratified with a setting and all sorts of secret traps and doors and by the forth i am somehow content.
i. love. this. this moves marvelously, inconclusively, and would turn any non-nail-biter into one.
¡¡¡
#1 <3 (Though I wish crab emoticons worked on this blog - I would go bat shit crazy).
ReplyDelete#2 - upside down exclamation marks - umm yes.
the problem is, if i submitted this to poetry magazine they would probably take it. because they hate young people, not because they get it.
ReplyDeleteim obviously a fan of anything with biblical-style intonations, which is then one point of suggestion: phrases like "when all else fails" and "if you are still unsure" turn Imprecatory Psalm into DVD Player Guidebook.
ReplyDeletein the first stanza, 'paying no patronage...' and 'the names spat...' are a bit too Telling for me, in the exact way that 'the righteous cannot keep a manicure' isn't.
i think you've got a natural ease writing in second-person. this interests me - aesthetically, and psychologically...
i will never trust someone who sings in full vibrato in the shower!
ReplyDeletei love this. also, the title reminded me of the glasses billboard from the great gatsby. which is pretty fitting for this poem.
so--don't trust tate?
ReplyDelete