poem of the day 04.10.09

nabokov

and then i wrote:

that’s america
everyone walking around doing
what they are supposed to do.

she wrote me back:

that’s what you think

i told her:

it’s actually a kerouac quote
but yes to an extent that’s what i believe

so she wrote me back:

appearances can be deceiving

i wrote:

i’ll have to take your word for it

then she asked me:

ever read pale fire?

and i wrote back:

i don’t read women writers

well, then she wrote me:

since when is vladimir nabokov a woman?

i considered the question then wrote:

i was joking. pale fire has an interesting concept
but vlad just never did it for me. if one can’t make sex
with a thirteen-year-old exciting, i tend to write them off
pretty quickly.

she wrote me right back:

his point wasn’t to make pedophilia sexy

so i wrote her and said:

that’s probably why he and i never clicked
i was looking for something in the writing that simply
wasn’t there

i didn’t have time to wait around
and see what she wrote me next
but i’m curious
maybe it’ll be something about politics
or hemingway and gertrude stein
how ernie was a misogynist at heart
burdened with all of those mommy issues.