Novel Lines 101: 101 alphabetical poems, each riffing on the opening line of a postmodern novel or metafiction.
Antonio Lobo Antunes, Act of the Damned (opening lines; trans, Richard Zenith)
On the second Wednesday of September, 1925, I arrived at the office at ten-past nine. I remember this not because I have an exceptional memory or keep a diary (I stay away from pussyshit nonsense like diaries and poems) but because it was my last day of work before we fled to Spain.
09 / 09 — cycle compleat (niner niner)
Yep, a Wednesday for sure
That ’25 cent pussyshit nonsense
poems stuck on “17”
Aha, suk’cess (slurp)
busy’ness, ahh, mater·I·al
ass’pect of life, yah?
We’re vibrating crazy 8’s
up here baby, star-power
No pot shots, pls
(Bye bye sell sell, ffs)
Good luck dumb luck, un-
luck one duck we’ve left
Sara K.O.
It’s ten-past nine
(hun’erd years hence
well almost)
Put a tenner on “19”
No input no in-
coming, pls
Poet, your time has come
This blog was the successor to the poetry section of the now no longer existing The Argotist Online. This blog is also no longer active, and is now just an archive.
Poem by Stephen Bett
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