by Joseph Mosconi

    “Short corporation: / victim in a revolving door.” Four poems and a note on method.

    short corporation:
    victim in a revolving door

    digest-size monthlies
    in the 1920s
    claim a thousand year old

    Coptic priest
    Monday topic

    a country doctor
    face of impossible crime

    a used tea bag
    a dead houseplant
    a ball of twine

    beat ’em all:
    atmosphere & esoteric lore

    There are fights.

    the sensible woolly wife
    the dark-haired smoky-voiced wife
    the earthy dame the Auntie Mame
    the lusty grandma

    the stream of non-sequiturs in Western Civ

    bumble & stumble
    a romantic duo
    outtalked 12 to 2
    knocked out by gay golf balls

    watch what you eat before going to bed
    “nobody does my octave, you know”

    pop music
    (sums in operation)

    24-hour new start
    heart blooper
    on air CPR

    give us 22 minutes
    we’ll give you
    a 66-minute hour

    intercourse
    twixt dog & skunk

    foreign sales
    after grain

    loose shoes
    & good race

    the only thing colored
    from fence to fence
    from row to row

    “the party of Lincoln delivers”

    he no playa the tight puss
    he no maka the high meat price

    “Personal Affects” is an ongoing poetic sequence that uses language drawn from obituaries found in the Los Angeles Times. I use two rules to determine which words to appropriate. First, I collect language that describes tangible objects left by the deceased: their personal effects, to use a somewhat noirish phrase. Such objects might be personal possessions or any physical evidence of the decedent’s existence. Second, I collect language that describes the personality of the deceased: their personal affects. Such language might be reminiscences by friends or editorialisms by the journalist who wrote the obituary. The words and phrases are then rearranged and edited.

    The names associated with each poem presented here, in the order that they appear: Edward D. Hoch, Suzanne Plashette, the Maharishi Mahesh, and Earl Butz.