Every week I wash the sheets and make the bed and tell Lady, “New made bed, clean sheets,” whereupon she quotes a Russ Vidrick line to me, “Clean sheets, redemption, and you.”
Man, what a great line. Last week at his monthly Guide to Kulchur open reading, I told Russ I’d be signing my name to that line as soon as he dies, and he said, “Heck, take it now.”
So I did.
Steal This Poem
Could I steal,
I’d take ‘until things move according to themselves’
by Amy Bracken Sparks.
Or Jim Lang’s
‘ice melts in only one direction’
though I’d lift the whole poem if he didn’t watch that way.
Told Russ Vidrick when he died
I’d be signing my name to his
‘clean sheets, redemption, and you.’
I’d glom Steve Melton’s Steve E Gloom.
He’s dead and would like that,
having deeded me ‘Cleveland in Cambodia’
before he downsized.
I’d steal most of Major Ragain’s work
as life lesson plan.
Hack Jack Kerouac’s strife and time,
borrow Burroughs’ drugs,
swallow Stevens’ Eliot.
When I recite
I’ll use Bob Dylan’s words,
sing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Everybody Knows’
in Tom Waits’ voice
with Willie Nelson
for backup stash and harmony.
(I’d steal from Daniel Thompson
but he’s the laureate poet
and people would know it).
Oh, I’m good at taking things,
I have a sense of taste.
– Smith, 2004, 2014
