Biography In The First Person


This is not the way I am.
Really, I am much taller in person,
The hairline I conceal reaches back
To my grandfather, and the shyness my wife
Will not believe in has always been why
I was bold on first dates. My father a crack salesman.
I’ve saved his pines, the small acclamations
I used to show my friends. And the billyclub
I keep by my bed was his, too; an heirloom.
I am somewhat older than you can tell.
The early deaths have decomposed
Behind my eyes, leaving lines apparently caused
By smiling. My voice still reflects the time
I believed in prayer as a way of getting
What I wanted. I am none of my clothes.
My poems are approximately true.
The games I play and how I play them
Are the arrows you should follow: they’ll take you
To the enormous body of a child. It is not
That simple. At parties I have been known to remove
From the bookshelf the kind of book

/> That goes best with my beard.
My habits in bed are so perverse that they differentiate me
From no one. And I prefer soda, the bubbles just after
It’s opened, to anyone who just lies there. Be careful:
I would like to make you believe in me.
When I come home at night after teaching myself
To students, I want to search the phone book
For their numbers, call them, and pick their brains.
Oh, I am much less flamboyant than this.
If you ever meet me, I’ll be the one with the lapel
Full of carnations.


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Biography In The First Person