Spencer Silverthorne: I Fail at Portraying Anne Sexton in Drag
I FAIL AT PORTRAYING ANNE SEXTON IN DRAG
Give her body back because, tootsie, like all things that run, anyone can behave
mad as hell and wish for a lifetime of shucking those dark Mass woods.
“Should I let this damn dog in?”
The red that would, the red that dared. Little rosy boy, is there anything available for trespassing? You see some getaway but not a gesture of love.
“David!”
“He says I sound like a minister. He hates it!”
God showed up with his car out back, running and squealing, as cars and men do.
“Darling, darling, come here, don’t be camera shy! It’s just a stupid television camera!”
We skip down a path toward model behavior, later toward hypnosis, as poets play
to the point of exasperation. This damn dog still wheezes by the door.
“We’re fake! We can’t BEAR each other! It’s so easy to be natural.”
Spencer Silverthorne's chapbook Premium Brawn was a finalist in the Bateau Press Keel Chapbook Contest. His work is forthcoming or featured in Assaracus, The Birds We Piled Loosely, Permafrost Magazine, Tammy, Title, Unbroken, Vagabond City, and others. Originally from Philadelphia, he lives and teaches English in Limpopo Province, South Africa.
