The Thin Man Goes Home
By Kit Robinson
You are as even tempered as a frying pan
In a sudden downpour
A campsite in disarray
A long time coming
Laughter from two yards over
The neighborhood a claim on space
Involving multiple parties
It must be Father’s Day
Judging by the heightened attentions of daughters and sons
Thus a man enjoys solitude, stillness, pink petals of the carrier rose
And in a certain light
The sonic continuum of tires against the road
The sensation of being carried along toward the end of a sentence
After the disappearance of the period
Air to breathe, water to drink
The suggestion box is empty
Obsolete equipment piles up in nooks and crannies
This is all wrong, that’s messed up
We go on in and make ourselves comfortable
The movie has just begun
It’s Nick and Nora Charles and their little dog Asta
They’re visiting Nick’s parents in the suburbs
He’s on the wagon and trying to keep a low profile
But of course she brags about him to the local paper
And soon he’s embroiled in detective work despite himself
There is crime everywhere, even here in the suburbs
It must be human nature
Desperate characters on the loose
“Yoke yourself to your strongest conviction”
Was a piece of advice derived from the Y in JOY
But Pam doesn’t buy that
And I say it sounds too slavish
Remember the Groucho line
“These are my principles
If you don’t like them I have others”
When the pen runs out of ink
You simply replace the cartridge
And continue writing
To the sound of jet planes overhead
It’s time to revive the typewriter
For the benefit of kids
Now entering the ranks of the scribe force
Sliding the paper under the roller
Striking the surface with heavy metal blows
History curls right into the future
A Möbius strip
That brings bygone media around and back
With all the drama, character, sound, light and destiny
Alive in an imagination of living
Copyright Credit: Kit Robinson, "The Thin Man Goes Home." Copyright © 2018 Kit Robinson. Used by permission of the author for PoetryNow, a partnership between the Poetry Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network.
Source: PoetryNow (2018)