February 11: New Favorite Poet, W. Todd Kaneko, "Self Portrait as Flash Gordon (Motion Picture, 1980)"

Tomorrow night, W. Todd Kaneko is doing a poetry reading at the university.  He is the author of the collection The Dead Wrestler Elegies, and he's one of my new favorite poets.  He's a poet, artist, musician, and, by the looks of the poem below, a science fiction fan.

Every time I read one of his poems, I sit back and say to myself, "I wish I'd written that."  His stuff makes me want to write.  I want to pick up my journal and pen, sit down, and start scribbling.

Plus, Saint Marty loves Flash Gordon.

Self Portrait as Flash Gordon (Motion Picture, 1980)

by:  W. Todd Kaneko

There is always that spacecraft careening
through the vortex: Flash Gordon—reluctant
astronaut and quarterback scrapping
through alien quagmire, through rocket
launch and starfall to save every one of us
from the Emperor of Planet Mongo.
Flash—his boyish smile delights earthgirls,
makes alien princesses quiver for beefcake
bursting through that offensive line
of robots to protect our Earth.

A boy dreams of soaring with hawkmen,
crashing through lightning fields
for true love—he brandishes his name
on his chest like it was another word
for miracle, for courage. There is no thought
about the velocity of a perfect spiral
thrown on second down near the manhole
marking the fifty-yard line, just Dale Arden
cheering Go, Flash! Go! No thought about
that high school girl wincing as a boy crashes
and burns on a hard tackle in front
of her driveway. He lays in the street
and imagines Freddie Mercury singing

his name: Flash—king of the impossible,
savior of the universe, feathered hair and square
jawed as Dale Arden pleads, Flash! I love you
but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!
He will stand up, dust himself off, refusing
to recognize that pain in his hip until later
that night—in the dark he will press his palm
against the bruise and think about how
he should have caught that pass and dashed
for the end zone, how that girl will look
at him as he waits for the school bus
or a spaceship to any distant solar system.

Go, Flash!  Go!