A Poem by David W. Pritchard

Author: Poetry Editor

February 19, 2019

This week, a poem by David W. Pritchard.

 

Origin Story

 

Tonight I remember
jerking off to Roseanne
reruns at 2 am
when in high school.

This is as close to an origin story
as I can manage to relate.
John Goodman in flannel.
John Goodman loudly laughing.

John Goodman loudly yelling.
John Goodman biting the apple,
the world falling into sin.
Letters of John and Goodman.

Now that that’s out of the way
and while I’m waiting in Brooklyn for Kay
I can say without further explanation
my singular desire is to be fucked on a train.

To disclose this requires slight deviation
from the predicating frame of the satire,
descent into the special interest frame
of the special interest gay and lesbian poem.

Imagine if that had been
the first line: what would you do?
And further if I was
Robert Creeley or John Goodman!

Me and 500 of my closest friends
are really excited about this poem.
We all jerk off together
reading and rereading it assiduously.

In a different origin story
John Goodman is not the star.
It is not 2 am.
Things are escalating.

——

DAVID W. PRITCHARD is a poet and a scholar, but not a poet-scholar. Recent writings can be found in or are forthcoming from Historical Materialism, Tripwire, Matter Monthly, and Dreampop. David lives in Holyoke and teaches at UMass Amherst, where he is currently hard at work on a dissertation on New Narrative writing and the poetics of political commitment.