Joseph Kennedy Pours Out His Heart to a Golf-course Bartender Moments before the Stroke That Silenced Him Forever
Rent from DeepDyve- Joseph Kennedy Pours Out His Heart to a Golf-course Bartender Moments before the Stroke That Silenced Him Forever
That December afternoon the subject was Rose, though the barkeep couldn'tcare less about Lindbergh or JPK's ambassadorship to the Court of St. James.
He did perk up, however, to hear JFK didn't want his deals with Joe McCarthyor Frank Costello coming back to bite him. The barman saw this Joe, a regular
who tipped like a Rockefeller, wanted absolution. And the guy knew about sin.Rose was JPK's daughter. And she was adept at managing sex with strangers
but feral as far as her hygiene. This is going to get ugly, the barkeep thought.The tips were good, so he changed the subject—to Hollywood in the Thirties;
the scandal linking a broom closet, Alexander Pantages, and a charge of rape.Anything but lobotomies. But then the word came flying out—lobotomy—
and with such a tone of regret the barman listened, thinking he should keephis mouth shut, so that if there is a God then that God might let him pass
through the gates of that other exclusive club. Call it American Heaven.He speculated—the bartender—that Joseph Kennedy had said All right,
and consented to surgery because Rose was horny. An embarrassment.Joe finished his rant, saying, "First time I summoned the Almighty [End Page 130]
was in Gloria Swanson's bedroom: I needed help getting her off."Then: The second, the awful day I said yes to Rose's lobotomy—
and the narrator sad-rocked and vanished like some Pequodstaved into a sea of kindling and splinters under winter stars. [End Page 131]
Roy Bentley's poems have appeared in the Southern Review, Shenandoah, Rattle, Blackbird, and elsewhere. He is recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the national endowment of the arts as well as fellowships from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the Ohio Arts Council. He most recent book, Walking with Eve in the Loved City was selected as a finalist for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize by Billy Collins and is available from the University of Arkansas Press.
