The Bad Bank

My poem, "The Bad Bank," is up at The New Yorker's website. Like an episode of Law & Order, it's "ripped from the headlines" of the financial news. Well, not exactly ripped -- more like when you're reading the paper on the subway, and you don't notice that the ink has smudged all over your fingers until you look in the mirror in the bathroom at work a few hours later, and there's an inky bruise across your face that nobody said anything about because they just assumed someone gave you a beatdown over the weekend and you were too ashamed to talk about it. 

"The Bad Bank" at NewYorker.com

New Ben Mirov Poem

I really like this poem by Ben Mirov on the Best American Poetry blog. It employs a series of verbal slip-ups, wherein the wrong letters are used to transform words, e.g. "Park your car in the garage" becomes "Park your star in the garbage." I can't even count the number of times I've parked my star in the garbage (or at least that's how it feels sometimes). Kudos to Ben on a great poem. 

"The Poem Addresses Ben Mirov in a State of Inconsolable Grief"

Ben edits the superb journal Pax Americana, which has some great poems by Brian Kalkbrenner and others in the latest issue. 

Couplet

In this week's New Yorker, Rebecca Mead profiles the Dickman twins: 

"Michael is like stepping out of an overheated apartment building to be met, unexpectedly, by an exhilaratingly chill gust of wind; reading Matthew is like taking a deep, warm bath with a glass of wine balanced on the soap dish." 

"Couplet: A tale of twin poets"