Proper Tales Press 40th anniversary cento: Hugh Thomas

Proper Tales cento

I turned right instead of left

I got on the right bus

Turn up the sunlight, I'm in

Morningside Heights 

Praise be the fake Rolex  

Praise the dogs

I wish Frank O'Hara weren't dead

now everyone is angry 

It's a kind of "be yourself" event anyway. 

I kick the cat simply

because it's pretty funny.

It is strange music that we like. 

Place this letter over your ear

Employ a loaf of French bread wrapped in red,

just to create a din

I am truly horribly upset because Marilyn

A few moments later,   

We all still have our faces.

Now nothing will convince him

and we'll forget this ever happened.

Hugh Thomas is a poet and translator living in Montréal, where he teaches mathematics at UQAM.  Maze, his debut poetry collection, was published by Invisible Publishing in June 2019. His poetry has appeared in chapbooks published by Bookthug, Paper Kite Press, above/ground, and, most recently, shreeking violet press (in a collaboration with Stuart Ross and Dag Straumsvåg).

He is the co-translator, with Catherine Cormier-LaRose, of the Proper Tales Press title La Peur Handicapée of the Underwood, by Marie-Ève Comtois and Stuart Ross (2017).