Stephanie Brown is one of my favorite poets and she's in NYC from California to give a reading tomorrow night at the St. Marks Church (8:00 pm 131 E. 10th Street New York NY 10003, details here). She'll be reading with Patricia Spears Jones. What a fantastic reading to start the year! Stephanie has three knockout poems in the current issue of APR, one of which I'm posting below to whet your appetite for tomorrow's reading.
You Get Comfortable and Relax
Pam said, I think it’s like slipping off really tight clothes, you get
comfortable and relax; there are all these
things to do. I said,
I think there’s real estate. No, I said,
I always imagined my Dad went first so he could find
A nice place for my mom. That’s the way he is;
This is a joke but not, you understand, and made her laugh.
She said, I would like to be wearing a great looking Armani coat
And lie down and choose to die
Like Indians. You know, “good day to die?”
I said, I think that’s what they said before battle, not suicide.
I might not be right about that but I know what you mean.
I said, But you can’t do that. What if
It really is a sin to commit suicide? I said, All those
Near-death people who tried, they came back
To report the mistake, the grave mistake, I emphasized,
Trying to make it funny again. I love that we have
Conversations like this! she said. Me too,
And then we turned our backs to each other, back
To the computer screen, back to work.
-- Stephanie Brown
