dinner party
if anne tyler shows up, we’ll have homesick for dessert
and she’ll teach us how to breathe and forgive
hemingway is sure to want venison, but after
an extra tall absinthe, he’ll make do with chicken
as miss plath lights the candles and serves up
bitter cookies dressed in marzipan and red
garth stein arrives dripping wet, a bit shy and
empty-handed, claiming the dog ate his casserole
which makes david wroblewski snort
and when erin morgenstern sits down we hear a barker
hawking tickets to a game of musical chairs
a plan mr. king is all for as the table suddenly expands
and the sun starts to sing in the corner
rosamunde pilcher brings bread pudding and roses
and insists that she sit next to salinger
though of course, his chair remains empty and
anne sexton is the life of the party, wearing pearls
and wry and eventually landing in vonnegut’s lap
while franzen sneers behind one perfect hand, his plate
filled with words no one else cares to sample
as toni morrison whispers with somerset maugham,
heads bent in an endless discussion
dostoevsky is straining to hear
cummings offers up broken cake and colored water
he pulls from the pockets of his coat
when edith wharton smiles at mark danielewski
picking leaves from the hem of emily’s dress
and mark helprin sits in the corner, alone
taking notes with long cold fingers
as laura ingalls passes chipped plates
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A little fun today, planning dinner with some favorite authors.
Who would you invite to your party?
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A poem a day for 30 days, in honor of National Poetry Month.
This post is part of NaPoWriMo, see more here.
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April 2nd, 2014 at 10:03 am
Great, great fun, Kelly. And really, really well done. Even an unread barbarian like me knew (and GOT) the allusions made for each writer. Yeah, even “while franzen sneers behind one perfect hand, his plate filled with words no one else cares to sample.” LOL 😉
April 2nd, 2014 at 10:18 am
yes to what joe said – i was thinking the same thing. 🙂
April 2nd, 2014 at 2:35 pm
Sounds intriguing. There are groups there I’d like to engage, and others I might shy away from. Cool topic and great poem!
April 2nd, 2014 at 3:59 pm
ha. this was cool…i think that would be quite the party to be at…imagine the conversation between such literary minds….
April 2nd, 2014 at 4:04 pm
i absolutely love this!
April 2nd, 2014 at 6:02 pm
This is bloody brilliant!
April 2nd, 2014 at 6:10 pm
Well done. I like this a lot. Joe has said it all.
April 2nd, 2014 at 6:10 pm
Oh yes. You captured this so well! I want to be right there enjoying absinthe and bread pudding.
April 3rd, 2014 at 7:48 am
Brilliant writing, I loved the whole piece and this little turn – ‘as the table suddenly expands and the sun starts to sing in the corner’ really made my eyes water. Thank you for posting it here.
April 3rd, 2014 at 6:19 pm
ah, exquisite ~
April 7th, 2014 at 10:11 am
Again.. excellent. It’s fun to read many of then all at once over and over. I get a sense of your style and what moves you to write. Thanks for your work.