Jennifer Grotz’s reading yesterday was absolutely wonderful. I am a giant nerd for her poems. For those of you who have read Cusp but have not heard her new work, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I like Cusp a great deal, but some of these new poems have lines that I simply cannot get out of my head. I’ve heard a few of them three times now, and think I might burst if I don’t get written copies of these poems sometime soon.

I feel like a commercial. The one where the two dogs are running into the house. A big dog and a small dog. The big dog has the sad face of a bar brawler. The small dog has eyes like the bulges from black balloons under too much pressure. The big dog has a gruff voice, and says, “I’m gonna get some Gravy Train.” The small dog has a charlatan’s voice and agrees. I do not know if I am the big dog or the small dog. But I am gonna get some gravy train.

I bought a used copy of a book by one of my colleagues. Inside the back cover was a note:
“I’ve never been there.
We went there one night.
SJ can go to any state
school for free because
her father was hurt -
Vietnam and can’t have
children.”