header-image

Requiem w/ Eye Roll

Jay Hopler
Facebook icon Share via Facebook Twitter icon Share via Twitter

No minister mild of manner, moon-

    Faced over his tab collar,

    My grandfather; rather, a gambler,

An embezzler, a loan

    Shark, a con man, a womanizer

W/ booze on his breath & both feet on

    The gas of whatever

        Jalopy got left unlocked.

        He even borrowed the gun he shot

            Himself w/, the smartass.

        Of course, he conked

    In a cornfield in Winchester,

Indiana, so that joke was on

Him—. Oblivion.

How’s that for a punchline?



This poem is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

More Reads
Poetry

Excerpt: When the Arab Apocalypse Comes to America

Shall I condemn myself a littlefor you to forgive yourself —Fady Joudah, […] I condemn the blooded river that became a sea we cannot crawl out of. I condemn the ...

Poetry

Structure

Walking back I pass a block-long dune of rubble and the man whose job it is to shovel it. An iron rectangle he’s nestled in debris makes a little door he’s ...

Poetry

Mnemonic Device

More