NVN Extra: Some People
“Ode to Dave” by Christian Ray, “Anita Bryant’s Last Christmas Wish” by Chad Parenteau, “Free Biden” by Indran Amirthanayagam
AN ODE TO DAVE (DAVID LYNCH)
by Christian Ray
Author’s note: The quotation from Lynch in this image has always resonated with me and inspired the final line of my poem.
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Mystery, movies, murder, music, the lens was the paint Dave used to show something surreal, I still scratch my head at why he called it Eraserhead. Dave was taught in my school, we learned nothing is smoother than Blue Velvet, and in the 80s Kyle MacLachlan was a hunk. Thanks for the weird stories, and unique writing Dave. The unreal used to seem more real when you were here. Watch over Twin Peaks, your films will keep speaking to the rest of us.
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Christian Ray is a third-year literature student in the heart of Western North Carolina. He loves fantasy stories and beat poetry. One can rely on Christian to watch some television or play with his dog.
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ANITA BRYANT’S LAST CHRISTMAS WISH
by Chad Parenteau
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The problem with wishes is that anyone can make them. On her last day alive, she proclaims, I want the world to become an orange, with skin so hard nobody can access its golden treasures by way of bit, blade or begging. A hard swallow. She continues. But before that, a pie! I want a pie to strike this nation with a crust of fire and a filling of ice. And every child of God who ever stopped calling or writing their righteous mothers will finally feel shame we could never teach. A final gasp. And let my last words before joining an eternal choir of praise in paradise be a whisper in God’s ear, a show of appreciation and word of advice to His design. With that, her soul departs so fast it would have knocked Jesus’ family aside on their way to Egypt. Then in the morning, from Christmas to New Year’s and beyond, the grave dancers guild develops restless leg syndrome, kicking under tables and blankets, unaware they’re missing their number.
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Chad Parenteau hosts Boston’s long-running Stone Soup Poetry series. His work has appeared in journals such as Résonancee, Molecule, Ibbetson Street, Pocket Lint, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, Off The Coast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, Crossroads, dadakuku, Nixes Mate Review and The Ugly Monster. He has also been published in anthologies such as French Connections, Sounds of Wind, Reimagine America, and The Vagabond Lunar Collection. His newest collections are All's Well Isn't You and Cant Republic: Erasures and Blackouts. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine and co-organizer of the annual Boston Poetry Marathon. He lives and works in Boston.
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FREE BIDEN
by Indran Amirthanayagam
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What we cannot explain. What we cannot decipher in mind and heart. What we cannot understand. That is the legacy of the man who supplied 2,000 pound bombs, fighter jets, attack drones; sent naval gunships to anchor within striking distance of the Strip, and provided building blocks for the Iron Dome. This man who championed and invested in America, in more red than blue states, besides walking the picket line, this loving father and husband, left his mind near Yaffa, on the road to Bethlehem, yet another occupied territory. Free Biden I hear blowing in the wind. among ashes. Too late.
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Indran Amirthanayagam has just published Seer (Hanging Loose Press) and The Runner's Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil). El bosque de deleites fratricidas is forthcoming from RIL Editores. He is the translator of Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). Mad Hat Press published his love song to Haiti: Powèt Nan Pò A (Poet of the Port). Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks) is a collection of Indran's poems. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.