On Becoming a Poet: A Brief Memoir

by C.E. Chaffin

Originally published on May 20, 2009

“…If a child is deprived of normal physical bonding prior to language acquisition, which increases exponentially somewhere around the age of two, I think language can become the chief means by which such a child seeks bonding. If true, it makes sense that poets spend the rest of their lives trying to express in words what they could not gain in touch and comfort. At the least, I think this holds true for me…”

Resistance

by C.E. Chaffin

Originally published on March 1, 1999

With rude clanks my tailpipe beats the rear axle, each pothole bruising the brake line’s thin artery until it bleeds on the transmission housing. The brake pedal gives up the ghost and falls to the mat. Diagnosis: broken muffler strap. In the auto parts store butts crawl along the baseboards. Fluorescent lights superilluminate the chrome [...]

To Charles Bukowski

by C.E. Chaffin

Originally published on May 1, 1998

Your shadow follows me like an oil smear on asphalt. I carry your shrunken head in a paper bag. No one mistakes it for wine. The factory label reads: “Do not cut threads between lips.” You drooled forty-five books before Daddy Death decked you. Still, precautions must be taken because you took democracy too far. [...]