The Alphabet Conspiracy

Contents

Contents Intercession 13 Key to Pronunciation: /sälm/ 16 Spurious Entry 17 Dear Reader 18 Waiting for Lightning 20 The Alphabet Conspiracy 21 Who Will Give My Father a Needle, a Mouse, a Cat, a Bird? 24 Meaning To Milk 25 Hunger 26 Vivian Buck, 1924-1932 28 My Mother Crochets the Lord’s Last Supper 30 Bondmaid 31 On the Maiden Voyage of Francis Marion, Revolutionary War Hero 35 This is the final day after years of sweetness 36 Lilith vs. the Movie Monsters 37 Saint Rita 38 The Whore’s Guide to Etymology 39 Ossuary of James 40 Civic Duty 44 The Sin-Eater 45 The Opposite of Falling Stars, 1978 46 Staying Under 47 Monongah, 1907 48 Seed Store Sestina 50 Almanac 52 Whatever You Do 54 Ur: What Signs & Wonders 56 Terrible Holy Joy: Reading the Norton Anthology of Poetry in Bed 57 Watson and the Shark 58 The American on His First Honeymoon 60 First Apartment 61 For Western Violence and Brief Sensuality: A Rondeau 62 In the ER Waiting Room with My Girlfriend 63 The Burning Barn 64 The Signal 65 This Is Not True 66 Smite, Smitten 68 In the Museum of Us 69 The Plagiarist 70 Within Five Miles of Home 71 Auto Life Fire 72 Mishap 74 Womanless 75 A History of Glass 76 You Bring Out the Dead in Me 78 Notes for Selected Poems 79 Plots, true or false, are necessary things. —John Dryden from “Absalom and Achitophel” This page intentionally left blank. ...