Kansas Gothic Intelligentsia
KANSAS GOTHIC INTELLIGENTSIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6piI5-Is0so&list=PL54E6FCC882BE1B32&index=33
—for Connie, Roberta, Theresa,
Jan and Kenton
_________________
We’ve all been tainted by it—
America Gothic deep inside us
There’s no such thing as the—
FLY OVER STATE aesthetic
____________
It’s deep inside us & it’s not—
gonna budge or go anywhere
Just look at this lovely photo—
such exquisite young naivete
__________
Dearest Connie and Theresa—
lovely Roberta and gone Jan
The intelligentsia, my dears—
such young Emporia literati
___________
Elsie Pine took one look at me—
told me to come back to her
From then on we talked—
tea time there in her home
_____________
She was the Grande Dame—
the true Librarian Goddess
Long before the Eisenhower—
William Allen White Library
_____________
She gathered her coterie—
young Kansas writers together
I was unique though—
I came to her with credentials
_________
Talented lesbians sensed that—
I was quite capable of knowing
Mildred Kaff and her lover—
Vina Hillerman the Artist
______________
They knew my mother—
Amy Jane was their student
And suddenly I popped up—
totally unexpected by them
_____________
The Lesbos goddesses—
sailing by high overhead
Here is our gift to you—
this nelly prairie boy
__________
Help him to be who he’ll be—
it will be difficult for him
We’ve chosen his home—
Athens of the Midwest town
____________
Let him to be the Voice—
of summer cicada evenings
The boy of Peter Pan Park—
the kid who Mary White was
____________
WAW laid the groundwork—
the Park, the Lake, the Muse
And so the Voice came—
all the way from Kensington Park
_____________
The wrestling team knew it too—
as we worked out after school
Down by Peter Pan Lake—
there on the mats after school
_______________
Arnold Lopez in YMCA showers—
knowing all too well who I was
Shoving my face against the wall—
a bar of soap stuck up my ass
_____________
Knowing me better than—
I could possibly know myself
There in the moody YMCA—
I became who I am
____________________
Later Marjorie Sullivan sensed it—
Jaquith and Doxtator knew it too
They knew I was different—
But what could they possibly do?
________
How could they know—
I still don’t know who I am
What do I know about Kansas—
other than it’s MYSTERIOUS
________________
MYSTERIOUS SKIN—
like Scott Heim says
But then what do I know—
am I gay Kansas poet laureate?
________________
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment