Lecturing in his blindness, the aged Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges contemplated the nature of immortality quoting Thomas Aquinas: “Intellectus naturaliter desiderat esse semper,” the mind naturally desires to exist forever. To this Borges asked, “But in what ways does it desire it?” Obscurity is a tragedy in our times for it denies the possibility […]
Contributors 67
Denise Duhamel: Letters to Wendy’s
Joe Wenderoth Verse Press paper, $14 Letters to Wendy’s is simply one of the funniest, most irreverent books I’ve ever read. I’ve been a fan of Joe Wenderoth’s work over the past two years, ever since Ross Martin, an editor an Nerve, told me, “You have to see these Wendy poems we just published…” I […]
Elizabeth Scanlon: Wildlife Documentary
Livid with this life, she is awake, two years old and too much to be contained in bed and dreams. Quick text of change, the psych book says she won’t remember any of it — no matter how idyllic, it’s too traumatic: the maturation process is utter. Her fierce cognition mercifully lost, it is said, […]
Daniel Nester: Leslie Nielsen Signs Autographs, Comments on His Disaster Movie, The Poseidon Adventure
Splintered, with metallic plastic shards, the ray gun a Leslie Nielsen fan brandishes is the genuine article from Forbidden Planet. “Just point it at me!” he shouts, squinting, chunky girlfriend standing ready with the Polaroid. He refused to hold it, but posed nonetheless, ever the trooper. I walk up to him. Too cheap to buy […]
Daniel Nester: Pay-Per-View Étude
When we see old actors play roles past their prime, why do we not swell with the sunrise of pity? Perhaps we pick out terrible infants hidden beneath their vivid fitted suits. Time’s gracious wooden stakes could straighten them, like tomato branches stretching for the sun. Or think of Monet, his late-life flowers. Fingering our […]
Ander Monson: Lawrence Welk Dies
And men in Craftmatic adjustable beds recline, their hearts on momentary pause — my father one of them; all our fathers one of them, those fathers who made us turn the show on to light up evenings otherwise irreducibly devoted to the one long task, shoveling the snow back from the driveway — six inches […]