Here’s audio of my poem (or song) “Human Interest,” which appears in the new issue of The Dark Horse Magazine. The issue includes stunning poems by Kay Ryan, Elizabeth Burns, Niall Campbell, Wendy Cope, Claire Askew, Helen Mort, Ian Abbot, Vicki Feaver, Alicia E Stallings, Clare Pollard, X.J. Kennedy, John Foy, David Mason, Daniel Brown, and too many others to name. Also, Carmine Starnino’s engaging roundtable on trends in international Anglophone poetry, Amy Lemmon and Kathrine Varnes writing about Mark Strand, Jennifer Goodrich about James Lasdun, and so much more. Just buy the damned thing!
The Cyclops gets it in the eye,
Goliath by God’s will,
And now we think the little guy
Will always get the kill.
The nerdy girl will bag the hunk,
The local band get big,
The kids find gold in dad’s old trunk
While grandma does a jig,
Jack—acned, stooped, and awkward—
Trick the ancient giant,
Skinny Arthur extract the sword,
Intern land the client,
The farmer’s boy, newly knighted,
Become the chosen one,
Ages of unfairness righted
By a less-than-favored son,
As if, for sake of a story,
Awful odds are annulled,
Fictions fielding hopes of glory
Where none should be fulfilled.
Original appearance in the 20th-anniversary issue of The Dark Horse.
