The Chair
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The Chair - Richard Garcia
THE CHAIR
Copyright © 2014 by Richard Garcia
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition
14 15 16 17 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For information about permission to reuse any material from this book please contact The Permissions Company at www.permissionscompany.com or e-mail permdude@eclipse.net.
Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.—a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code—are made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the County of Monroe, NY; the Lannan Foundation for support of the Lannan Translations Selection Series; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester Area Community Foundation; the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester; the Steeple-Jack Fund; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide. See Colophon on page 94 for special individual acknowledgments.
Cover Design: Sandy Knight
Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster
Manufacturing: McNaughton & Gunn
BOA Logo: Mirko
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garcia, Richard, 1941–
[Poems. Selections]
The chair : prose poems / by Richard Garcia. — First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-938160-44-8 (paperback) — ISBN 978-1-938160-45-5 (ebook)
I. Title.
PS3557.A71122A6 2014
811'.54—dc23
2014004779
BOA Editions, Ltd.
250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306
Rochester, NY 14607
www.boaeditions.org
A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (1938–1996)
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Matchbook
A Portrait of My Childhood Painted by Goya
Day at the Beach, 1958
The Unstucks at the Gates of the Desert Folly Garden
The History of Umbrellas
The History of White Anklets
The History of the Minstrel Show
Little Known Fact Number One
Little Known Fact Number Two
Little Known Fact Number Three
The Religious Brain
His Last Night
My Angry Mob
My Fog
Helen’s Birthday
Susan
Christina
Miss C.C.
October
November First
Former Lovers
Footsteps
The Masked One
Sappho
The Poker-Playing Dog Poetry Workshop
The Poetry Lesson
The Expert
Useful Phrases for Business Letters: Example One
The Typewriter of Transcendence
The Pencil of Transubstantiation
The iPod of Pithy
Page
History
Gotta Have
Tripod
Little Sister
The Drummers
The Mysterious
The Mysterious Brassiere
Postcard from Pink
Postcard from Lake Manzanita
Postcard from a Nude Beach
Postcard from the Library Fire
Postcard from a Civil War Reenactment
Nightstand
The Chair
Felsenfeld
The Alibi Room
The Felsenfeld Movement
Confusion
No One
Vowelville
Missing One
Hemlock 1-7563
The Three
83
It’s Like
Like Two People
Just Like Two People
Tristes Tropiques
Undecided
Subservient Chicken
The Case of the Disappearing Blondes
The Rory Calhoun Film Festival
Dollar Theater
Hackers and 70s Hit Songs
Take
A Man Leaned Back
Tanglewood
Upraised Arms
The Abandoning
The Duration
The Waiting
The Aftermath
The Pants Dance
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Colophon
MATCHBOOK
My footsteps are loud, as if I were in a large room. I find a book of matches in my pocket and light one. I almost burn my fingers as the light goes out, leaving a trace of sulfur in the air. I try another and hold it high. Ropes. Curtains. I kneel, holding the match low. Wooden floor. I walk ahead slowly, sliding my feet, and almost step off into space. I hear a gasp. Someone chuckles. Apparently I’m being watched. I count the matches. I don’t want to waste any. Maybe I can find a candle. A flashlight. A light switch. I prepare myself to light the next match. I’m getting better at this.
A PORTRAIT OF MY CHILDHOOD PAINTED BY GOYA
In the kitchen an infant is standing in a corner as if he were shackled upright. He hears his mother calling softly, Camínate, niñito. Older now, he is trying to count to five. A hooded inquisitor from the Church stands over him. The boy cannot seem to get past five. The Inquisitor slaps his belt against a table: Count! The boy counts, rapidly from one to ten in English, then rapidly from ten to one in Spanish. The shadow of a wolf disappears into the wall. A slow pan of the kitchen: colander, knives, a cleaver. Voiceover: Bombs away! Geronimo! Ai Cisco! Ai Pancho! Hi-ho Silver, away! The boy opens his eyes many years later but he is still in the kitchen. His father is wrestling with a huge bird. Is it a turkey, a chicken? His father is behind the bird holding its wings out, laughing. The boy closes his eyes. Through the smoky sky, an old man clings to the back of an enormous bird.
DAY AT THE BEACH, 1958
You are on your knees in the sand, praying to Cupid. Diane is making a castle complete with stairwell. Your secret thoughts are longing for Clementine. And Lucy, remember her? You’re in a circular haze. That’s what you get for staring