Kim Roberts: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kim Roberts (photo, Art Omi, Oct 2019)

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Double Indemnity

 

No, not insurance. What I

meant to say was “double identity,”

 

as in Boutros Boutros-Ghali,

William Carlos Williams, Sirhan Sirhan,

 

Lady Gaga. For these folks, surely,

The Postman Always Rings Twice.

 

But now I’ve Mildred Pierced myself

to the image of James M. Cain,

 

typing away in his little white house

in suburban Maryland. His typewriter

 

is preserved in a university library;

I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the change

 

from manual to electric to electronic

to what-the-hell-is-a-typewriter

 

and no one will be archiving

our battered beloved iPads,

 

even if they once belonged to Yo-Yo Ma,

Flavor Flav, or Marky Mark.

 

Now all our devices must do at least

two things: phone-cameras,

 

calculator-umbrellas. But in truth

all of us lead double lives, an outer

 

story plus a hidden story, separated by

such a thin skin. Tell us that one again

 

Ford Madox Ford, Kris Kristofferson,

Humbert Humbert, Richie Rich.

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Kim Roberts is the editor of By Broad Potomac’s Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of our Nation’s Capital (University of Virginia Press, 2020) and the author of A Literary Guide to Washington, DC: Walking in the Footsteps of American Writers from Francis Scott Key to Zora Neale Hurston (University of Virginia Press, 2018). She has published five books of poems, most recently The Scientific Method (WordTech Editions, 2017).

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Comments

[lally]

what a gas, thank you for choosing it Terence, and for writing it Kim, made my day...

[Terence Winch]

Michael---glad you liked it.

[Jiwon Choi]

Made me remember Cain's sublime "The Postman Rings Twice." His typewriter knew what to do and out runs any "modern" device we have now. iPads be damned!

[Bernard Welt]

Wow, that's just terrific. Love Cain, love Double Indemnity, love this. I think I'll be coming back to it a lot.
PS The other night, I dreamed that Phyllis' name was Phyllis Rose Rosenzweig.

[David Lehman]

Wonderful.

[Terence Winch]

Jiwon---thanks for tuning in.

[Terence Winch]

Bernard---thanks for your comment.

[Bob Hershon]

Lively poem and a great paperback cover.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Bob. I agree on both counts.

[Beth Joselow]

Clever Clever Kim. I'm a fan. Great poem in a time of need.

[Eileen Reich]

Wonderful poem. Loved it 😎