The Poetry Section: Matthew Poindexter

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

This week, a new poem from Matthew Poindexter.

Dear Landscape with Blah Blah Blah

Thank you for the lunch last Sunday
at El Rey del Taco, where we each ate
pescado frito entrées, then split a dish
of crippling self-doubt for dessert.
Doubt can be no course but the last, can it?
Thank you for telling, between bites

of fish with lime and garlic sauce, the story
of the son who became so angry at his mother
for remarrying, he burned her signed
first edition of Catcher in the Rye.
I think you’d feel a little better if you torched
someone else’s stuff-just as long as it’s not mine.

Thank you for agreeing with me about whom
amongst our friends would be the best
to sleep with, and who doesn’t make the cut.
Thank you for proposing we make some rules
to follow in our poems: no more “Landscape
with Blah Blah Blah” in the title. No more

epistolary verse addressing inanimate objects:
“Dear Rutabaga,” “Dear Pitcher’s Mound,”
“Dear Food Stamp Act of 1964.” My offer
to ignore the second rule-if you promise me
you’ll break the landscape title one-still stands.
You said, “Breaking rules is why my life

is falling apart.” “But I love to read
your landscape title poems!” I said. You said,
“I truly doubt it.” I didn’t reply,
just watched you sign the check, because I knew
you wanted that to be the final word.
Yet to myself, I wished the biggest mistake

we could make was to break a silly rule.
I wished the worst thing anyone had ever done
was judge their friends purely for their beauty.
If only the most hurtful crime we committed
against those we love, those who love us back,
was to burn their most cherished possession.

Matthew Poindexter is a JD candidate at the University of North Carolina School of Law. His writing has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Best New Poets 2009.

You may contact the editor of The Poetry Section at [email protected].

Would you like to read more? Visit our vast archive of poetry!