The Stories Behind The Fly Girls, II.

I've got a really bad headache. The Colts are getting spanked by the Patriots, setting up a rematch of the 1985 Super Bowl that I'm going to have pretty much no interest in watching. And so, I find myself here, taking a break from the novel (*dropping hints*) to pull together the next set of liner note-type things for whoever the heck is reading this. (Note: I started this post a week ago, and I'm finishing it up now. The Colts came back, I'm actually interested in the Super Bowl, and my headache is gone.)

6. Fly Girls: Serenity -- This is the first of the Fly Girls series, and here's a quick explanation of how this all came to pass. I spoke to women, often by e-mail or IM or other virtual means, and I had them tell some things about themselves. And then I wrote about them. Man, that's an unsatisfying explanation. But that's pretty much what the Fly Girls series was all about. I don't remember exactly who "Serenity" was written for, but I do remember that everything written in quotes is directly taken from what she said to me via e-mail. It's also another haiku-based piece, from that phase when I was using the 5-7-5 form to guide me and give me structure. It's also a poem that really allowed me to work out some of my own shit through the words of others--and you don't get a lot of chances to do that in a project like this.

7. For Fallen Fathers -- My father is alive and healthy and probably playing golf or selling a house right now (knock wood). Raina came to me with a simple request--write a letter to a father that had passed away somewhat unappreciated. There probably was a bit more to the request, but that's the gist. And it was pretty damn easy to imagine the feeling. The original plan for this poem was to lay it out on the top part of two pages with a drawing of mountains and a little person screaming out to the heavens from the top of one peak. I still imagine that image anytime I read it. Go ahead and draw it into your copy. I think it helps.

8. The Elimination of... -- This is one of my favorites, mainly because of how long it took to come up with a plan for it, and then how quickly it ended up getting written. Some wise guy suggested I write about the citric acid cycle. Fair enough. Of course, I know nothing about the citric acid cycle. But I have google (no wikipedia for this one), and I find a site that gave some kind of citric acid cycle equation, and it made no sense to me. And I probably started cursing at the computer, calling it all kinds of foul and undeserved names. You can find some of those names in the poem. The juxtaposition just seemed to work.

9. Meat Locker: A Sketch -- My background in writing isn't as a poet. I'm a playwright by trade. As result, most of the poems I write are mostly focused on telling some kind of story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. It just works out that way. The poems that are labeled A Sketch in this volume are exceptions to that rule. They're pieces that try to capture just a moment, just an image. They look at backstories and they look at the meanings of the image, but they don't try to draw things out and complete them. This particular poem was, I believe, suggested by Angie, who suggested a bunch of pieces in this volume. It's based on the real Fairway on 125th Street, and the real meat locker, and real live Brooklyn art students who do this kind of thing, I imagine.

10. We Could Go You Know -- I remember writing this for Trace, but I don't remember exactly what the presented topic was. And it's basic--it is what it is, as I often say about pretty much everything in life. There's always that moment in a relationship when you feel like you and whoever you're with can just take off, leave the world behind, and do better as a unit than you'd ever do apart. And it's scary. And maybe I'm cynical, but I doubt that stuff ever really works. I'd like to believe it does sometimes, but it's hard to see it. This piece, I think, stays a little optimistic about the whole process at least.

Man, this is harder than I thought. Next time, I'll talk about these:
Fly Girls: The Assassin
The Way a Drug Haze Is
Teaching, Part Two
There is a City
Fly Girls: Give Me

And man, there's a lot to say about those.