The Interview, 1958

While I was being interviewed by someone    from Personnelat the Hartford A & I Insurance Company,    I asked him(I had nothing to lose since I already blew    the interview

by refusing the guy's offer of a cigarette    and coffee,my not seeming to be a frat-enough-type,    and maybebeing a little too serious about what I thought    mattered,

like reading), Did you know Wallace Stevens?    He leaned forward—his first movement of this already dead interview—    Wally? Hell yes!Then I said, as his butch haircut seemed to grow    before my eyes,

You know he wrote poetry? His second reply,    Hell no?You sure Wally wrote poetry? I'll be damned,    whileI was thinking, I hope not, but, well, maybe    he might.