February 18: Star Wars Poems, W. Todd Kaneko, "The Missing Link Explains How to be a Monster"

Ever since I expressed the idea of writing a book of poems based on the Star Wars movies last night, I haven't been able to think of a whole lot else.  I think I'm going to give it a try.  I know those films inside-out.  The characters.  Lines.  Settings.  Battles.  It would be so much fun.  Even if it doesn't turn into a book, I might actually enjoy myself, which goes against the suffering artist credo.

I know it's a bad idea.  Nobody's going to want to publish a book written by a Star Wars geek.  But I don't care.

I have another dead wrestler poem for you guys and gals.  At his reading last week, Kaneko said he was attracted to bad ideas, that he couldn't think of a worse idea for a book of poems than elegies for professional wrestlers.

Maybe Saint Marty suffers from the same affliction.

The Missing Link Explains How to be a Monster

by:  W. Todd Kaneko

Do not look at mirrors.  Do not fight
the urge to speak without consonants.
Sharpen your antlers against a coral reef,
fins against an elm tree, hooked teeth
against a fire engine.  Do not grow up.

Loosen the needlepoint that fastens
a man's soul to his bones, his bones
to the names he is called by his children.
Release a man from his skeleton, wrestle him
out of his old skin and let him rise
steaming into the night.  The referee's hand
slapping the canvas three times is the last thing
a man hears before he must reckon
with his body's malfunction.  Be reborn

with a snake's complexion, a caveman's brow.
Terrify the audience with a prehistoric tongue,
words cracking more like a thunderstorm
than a song for the moon.  Don't be afraid

when you awake after a fight, your new body
smeared with blood.  Smash your head
into a redwood, a mountain if you want,
until the whole world lies in pieces at your feet.

Try not to grow up to be like your father.
End up exactly like your father.

My next Halloween Costume