Art: Paul Theriault, Ever New (detail), 2022, acrylic and found paper on scavenged wood
Help Wanted: One Strangler
for Kenneth Koch
The poets are dying of words
They slouch against dictionaries
Or sit stupefied on broken glass
In front of huge concordances
Skyscrapers gleam in the background
One or two young ones keel over
He mutters “prophylactic hummingbird”
She mutters “mare piscina nunc”
Mice are scampering in the walls
A transport plan circles the blue
Should we not get some strychnine
Arsenic, a gun, some knives
IBM cards fall from the heavens
Read the introduction to feature poet John McKernan by Founding Editor Askold Melnyczuk entitled Where is My Lariat?: The Poetry of John McKernan. (1975)