Spring 2016, Volume 20

Poetry by Charles Harper Webb

Spinners

Don't say these dolphins leap and twist
to shake off parasites.  Don't say they crash
simply to stun some anchovy or smelt,

then bolt the body down.  Don't say
their triple Tsukahara's are only exuberance
of slaughter, elation at feeding

and/or sexual success, frothing over
into loops, flips, pirouettes.  Don't say
this cruise-ship auctioneer fakes

taking frantic calls, jabbing a cell
phone at his helpers, snarling, “Say
the auction's started.  She's too late!” 

Don’t say his Rembrandts, Matisses,
Chagalls are prints embellished
with purple rodomontade; his quips—

“Grand larceny!  Call the cops!”—
reference his fees.  Let us believe
his spirit whirls and twists and spiels

from sheer exhilaration at the greatness    
he is blessed to place in homes like ours
at prices which really are “a steal.” 

 

 

—Originally in Volume 15, Fall 2013

 

BIO: Charles Harper Webb’s latest book, Brain Camp, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2015. A Million MFAs Are Not Enough, a book of essays on contemporary American poetry, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in 2016. A recipient of grants from the Whiting and Guggenheim foundations, Webb teaches Creative Writing at California State University, Long Beach.