short corporation:
victim in a revolving door

digest-size monthlies
in the 1920s
claim a thousand year old

Coptic priest
Monday topic

a country doctor
face of impossible crime

a used tea bag
a dead houseplant
a ball of twine

beat ’em all:
atmosphere & esoteric lore

There are fights.

the sensible woolly wife
the dark-haired smoky-voiced wife
the earthy dame the Auntie Mame
the lusty grandma

the stream of non-sequiturs in Western Civ

bumble & stumble
a romantic duo
outtalked 12 to 2
knocked out by gay golf balls

watch what you eat before going to bed
“nobody does my octave, you know”

pop music
(sums in operation)

24-hour new start
heart blooper
on air CPR

give us 22 minutes
we’ll give you
a 66-minute hour

intercourse
twixt dog & skunk

foreign sales
after grain

loose shoes
& good race

the only thing colored
from fence to fence
from row to row

“the party of Lincoln delivers”

he no playa the tight puss
he no maka the high meat price

“Personal Affects” is an ongoing poetic sequence that uses language drawn from obituaries found in the Los Angeles Times. I use two rules to determine which words to appropriate. First, I collect language that describes tangible objects left by the deceased: their personal effects, to use a somewhat noirish phrase. Such objects might be personal possessions or any physical evidence of the decedent’s existence. Second, I collect language that describes the personality of the deceased: their personal affects. Such language might be reminiscences by friends or editorialisms by the journalist who wrote the obituary. The words and phrases are then rearranged and edited.

The names associated with each poem presented here, in the order that they appear: Edward D. Hoch, Suzanne Plashette, the Maharishi Mahesh, and Earl Butz.