“This is a partial autobiography. The important things are missing.” — William Cody Maher
In this video the poet reads an excerpt from his poem, “Pornography.”
from THE RETURN SOLD UNDER THE COUNTER (WHILE THEY LAST) Last words from a dying man to a loved one (sent third class) A statement from your mother why you weren’t in school A set of stainless steel knives (only one missing from the set) A few useless phrases in case of an emergency A prayer book with the pages shit stained A chain with a missing link still wrapped around someone’s throat A map of the city before they changed all the street names A face you can turn to when you refuse to wake up The whip of De Sade still beating his willing wife A pair of lovebirds torn apart A handful of threatening remarks for a rainy day Surgical instruments worn to the bone A sealed envelope held firmly in a bride’s nervous hands A winning pair of dice left rattling in a dead man’s fist A look of horror that time will not erase An act of mercy for a limited time only (at a price too good to be true) A portrait of Lenin done by a socialist painter in a shaky hand A wide selection of body parts floating face down in formaldehyde under a doctor’s dining room table in Berlin A few scattered leftovers from a feast in a famine A hope chest worth its weight in dust and flies Some valuable medicine for a young woman in Odessa that I threw away A complete set of Holy Communion soldiers still sealed in a plastic bag Sandwiches, a cookie and an apple in a child’s lunch pail that never made it home from school A face saving mask dangling on a string just out of reach A few wasted words to the wise A sarcastic remark for those still young at heart A few sacred books held together by a few dirty lines The collected jokes of a traveling salesman An open box of blind folds in a wide selection of fading colors Famous last words protected by copyright from the authorities A stick in the ground where a man used to be proclaiming all men equal — William Cody Maher
