LUPUS
by Bud Smith
Flannery O'Connor's
Collected Short Stories
is too big to bring to the beach
so I take a razor blade
and cut down the center of the spine
making two smaller books
one book has
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find”
on that I glue Rodan! The Flying Monster!
wrapped around, front to back
to keep the spine together
a bandage made
from a glossy junk magazine
the other razor blade half
has “Everything That Rises
Must Converge”
on that one
I glue, Godzilla emerging
from a bubbling
red sea
while I get sunburnt
and read the book
someone comes by
selling cans of beer
out of a black
plastic bag
they ask about
my strange books
I say
“They're about
a woman
who was attacked
by a wolf
but somehow survived”
he is also selling beach towels
replicating the Puerto Rican flag
or others with peacocks
purple and green
but I am fine, laying on hot sand
I buy a frozen mango slushy
to go with my can of beer
it all tastes like a fizzy demonic peach
out in the ocean
I spy a cargo ship
trolling across a difficult horizon.
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Author's Note
sometimes a 500 page book at the beach is a difficult thing. This is a poem about Flannery O'Connor of course, and about improvising in order to avoid being eaten by wolves or other monsters.
Other stories by Bud Smith
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Very, very fine.
Agree with Gary, and add that "trolling across a different horizon" is truly inspired. The peacock beach towel is sneaky as hell, btw. *
Oh, and the title and the wolf attack. I'm studying "black plastic bag" now seeking symbolism there as well.
All great!
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I get the title but, because of the disease association, it comes across as weird.
It's fun lying on hot sand drinking a mango slushie AS LONG AS YOU'RE SLATHERED IN SUNSCREEN!
sunscreen is def. necessary. And yeah, the title is weird. I can't figure out if it's good weird or delete weird. Almost called this one "RockRockRockaway Beach", "Unexpected Fever" or "Lon Chaney Jr. Leans in for a Kiss"
I'g go for the Lon Chaney. almost said Cheney.
wouldn't that be fun!
*, Bud. "...I spy a cargo ship trolling across a difficult horizon." A trolling cargo ship world be a rare sight, but it was probably made an easier find by drinking a fuzzy demonic peach beverage. And, that image makes a really good close.
This is just wonderful - start to finish. And the ship "trolling across a difficult horizon" - a perfect image. ***
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I would have bought the Peacock beach towel.No wait a minute… the Puerto Rican flag beach towel.
Great references. Even better imagination. *
Terrific stuff, Bud! Love your poems, man. *
So imaginative and fine.
Perfect roasting of the Southern Gothic icon. You stopped before embedding a crutch in the sand and hanging a peacock beach towel. Good. The LUPUS title doesn't offend once you get to the end and find it's not about Lupus. :] ***
Love the playful, nonchalant vibe in this quirky piece. Fun read!
So much fun and humanity on display here, and I absolutely love the honesty, but it's the ending that sticks it for me.."I spy a cargo ship
trolling across a difficult horizon." Very, very cool.
I've been on that beach.*
Great ending*
Man knows his F O'C. "I am a Catholic not like someone else would be a Baptist or a Methodist, but like someone else would be an atheist." Good read. *.