Poem: "The Gates of Hell" and Four Others at "Blood+Honey"

In 2002, I self-published a little chapbook entitled Religion, Anatomy, Catastrophe. Were there even 50 copies made? If so, certainly no more than that. Most of the poems went on to be published virtually at the now defunct website East Village Poets. But even that eventually disappeared. Yet I've always felt the poems in RAC merited a longer life or better yet a resurrection. So I started sending them out to those few publications that do reprints. The website Blood+Honey took five of them, including the poem below which I wrote for the theater program for my monologue The Gospel According to St. Genet which premiered at the Portland Art Museum in 1995.

The Gates of Hell

Today I’ll do something I might regret.

Today I’ll make history.

Today I’ll make dessert.

Today I’ll take the day off.

Today I’ll say I’m sick.

I’ll say I’m sick.

Today I’ll do something extravagant.

I’ll have the dog put to sleep.

I’ll do as I’ve always done.

I’ll try to enjoy my job.

Today I’ll quit.

I’ll buy tomatoes, tobacco, butter.

Today I’ll use a fine tooth comb.

Today I’ll clean this room.

I’ll cover my tracks.

Today I’ll tell him it’s over.

I’ll comprehend nothing and hope for the best.

I’ll weed the garden. I’ll fight too and nail.

I’ll cough.I’ll smile.I’ll swallow.

I’ll spit.

Today I’ll use the finest china. Today I’ll be lucky. Today I’ll pray for a change. I’ll change.

Image Credit: The associated collage is also "archival" as the Boris Karloff stamp on the back of this postcard dates back to 1997.