Kevin Sweeney

Graduate School

Everyone had an alter-ego:
Ed, the nice little Jewish guy from Tufts (Woody Allen)
Peter, the self-absorbed Jewish guy from Brandeis (Philip Roth)
Bill the fat brainy guy from Cornell (Thomas Pynchon)

I wanted to be Kerouac but they said I was
Frederick Exley of A Fan’s Notes, obsessed
with sports and prone to breakdowns.

We had the Undergraduate Surrealists from Emerson
who mocked everyone with poems that began
“It’s snowing in Utica” then turned to fjords
where angry moths set phone books afire. 

The meanest surrealist drove a Saab he and his wife
picked up in Europe as part of their wedding gift
tour of the continent

People wanted me to drink more because I was Irish
and getting into fights would be good too. 

I didn’t mind drinking but was afraid to let them know
I was a bit on the sensitive side
and didn’t want to fight anyone

unless it was California poets
with dubious Hell’s Angels stories, 
long beards, leather vests
& short stamina.

 

Kevin Sweeney’s latest book is Imminent Tribulations from Moon Pie Press.  His poems have appeared in Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, Nerve Cowboy, 5 AM, Wormwood Review, Pudding, Free Lunch, and others.  He’s an assistant poetry editor for The Café Review.