Great Sizzle
Pour me another one, please.I raked all the leaves in the rain and now I’m sore.My primal fear involves living in a dark forestmade up of half-sentences and embryonic cabbages.I was frolicking with my fairy godmother the other nightwhen we were suddenly seized by a chronic inflammation of unbelief.The old postage stamps are licked. The eggs are beaten.I look for redemption in comfort food and the second coming of Elvis.A line was forming outside the darkened auditorium last nightjust as the faithful began to chant, “The worst is yet to come!”I focus on the flowers in the vase in the living room stinking up the house,knowing sooner or later our source network will expose our files.There is no way to get your secret back from the secret-stealer.The soul is mysterious, they tell me. Put it in front of a camera and it explodes.
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- December 31, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 by Terence Winch.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Tony Goodwin
Terence Winch’s forthcoming book, That Ship Has Sailed, will be published in February 2023 as part of the Pitt Poetry Series from the University of Pittsburgh Press. He is the author of eight earlier poetry collections. A Columbia Book Award and American Book Award winner, he has also written a young adult novel called Seeing-Eye Boy and two story collections, Contenders and That Special Place. His work has appeared in many journals and is included in more than 50 anthologies, among them the Oxford Book of American Poetry, Poetry 180, and 5 editions of Best American Poetry. His work has been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and numerous times on “The Writers Almanac.” He is the recipient of an NEA Poetry Fellowship and a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Writing, among other honors. The Bronx-born son of Irish immigrants, Terence Winch is also a founding member of the original Celtic Thunder, the acclaimed Irish band, and composer of the band’s best-known song, “When New York Was Irish.” “Great Sizzle” appears in the The Ship That Has Sailed.
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